FAFSA Independant to married help

<p>This might have a really simple answer that I wasn't able to find on Google. So I apologize now if that is the case.</p>

<p>Okay, I'm trying to apply for FAFSA for the first time because up until last May I was a dependent on my parents and never qualified for aid. Now that I'm trying to apply for FAFSA I am married and it automatically makes me an independent obviously. However, it is asking for my tax information from 2012 when I was still a dependent on my parents and had never filed my own taxes.
So, my question is what tax information am I supposed to put in?</p>

<p>The FAFSA for the upcoming school year (2014-2015) will require your 2013 taxes. You will have to report your own and your husband’s income in 2013 and also both your assets.</p>

<p>If you are filing for the current year (2013-2014), you will report any income you had for 2012, if any (even if you did not file a return) and also your husband’s 2012 income. The assets would be any assets as of the day you file FAFSA.</p>

<p>How much did you or your husband earn in 2012? That’s the info that is needed on your FAFSA for the current school year. </p>

<p>Are you asking for aid for THIS CURRENT school year? or for NEXT fall/spring?</p>

<p>If you are filling out a FAFSA for the 2014-2015 school year, make sure you are filling out the 2014-2015 FAFSA. For THAT one (as noted above) you would include ALL income from both you and your husband from 2013, and current assets. </p>

<p>If you are doing a 2013-2014 FAFSA to change for the CURRENT school year (2013-2014) then on THAT one you would put any earnings you and your husband had during the 2012 tax year.</p>

<p>Both FAFSAs are currently available on the FAFSA website.</p>

<p>Which one are you doing…one for NEXT school year (2014-2015…school starting fall 2014) or one for the current school year (2013-2014)?</p>

<p>I’m currently filling out the FAFSA for 2013-2014 for this winter/spring semester. So I should put my husband’s taxes from last year (2012) even though we were not married until May 2013? Thank you!</p>

<p>I believe so. You are applying as married now. You are required to list your husband’s income and assets on that FAFSA, as well as your own.</p>

<p>Yes. What matters is your marital status on the date you file FAFSA. As you are married on the date you file, you must report your husband’s financial information.</p>

<p>Can someone help me! I don’t know what to do I’m in the same situation is just I’m 17 years old and married and I don’t know if my husband should file single and I should just go under my parents taxes. Would that affect my fafsa?</p>

<p>How can your H file as “single” when he’s married?</p>

<p>If you’re recently married, your parents probably can claim you on their taxes, but that’s irrelevant for FAFSA. You file as married.</p>

<p>Is just that they ask about our income and taxes in the fafsa application if he doesn’t put me in his taxes I’m not sure I would get money for college because he won’t claim me. I just don’t know what to do. we have been married for almost two years now in April. Please help!</p>

<p>If you were married at the end of 2012, you had the choice of filing your taxes as ‘married’ or ‘married filing separately’. Your parents can claim the exemption for you if they provided more than half of your support, but then your husband cannot claim that exemption. If you made a mistake, file an amended 2012 return and do it correctly for 2013.</p>

<p>For FAFSA, answer the questions asked; who claims you as an exemption doesn’t matter for FAFSA. If it asks for 2013 income, fill that in. If you are 17, are you going to college now, in spring 2014 or are you filing for financial aid for 2014-2015?</p>

<p>Ilovejsp…if you are married, you must file your FAFSA as a married student. This will mean you are independent from your parents for financial aid purposes. BUT…you MUST MUST MUST include your spouses’s income and assets on your FAFSA. There is NO exception to that rule.</p>

<p>Your IRS tax filing status has NOTHING to do with your FAFSA status.</p>

<p>As an aside, if you are married, you have two IRS tax filing choices…Married filing jointly, and married filing separately. Neither you nor your spouse can file as single. You are not single if you are married!</p>

<p>But really…for FAFSA, you MUST include your spouse’s income and assets if you are married. MUST. You will not include your parents.</p>

<p>?</p>

<p>You’re 17 years old and you’ve been married for 2 years???</p>

<p>*if he doesn’t put me in his taxes I’m not sure I would get money for college because he won’t claim me. *</p>

<p>That doesn’t determine aid. Who claims who doesn’t matter.</p>

<p>Why are your parents claiming you if you’ve been married for two years? Who have you been living with these last 2 years? Have you both been living with YOUR parents? Have they been supporting you both? or what?</p>

<p>For taxes, neither of you can file as single. You can file as married filing separately, but not as single.</p>

<p>For FAFSA, your marital status on the date you file FAFSA is what you must report. It is not a choice. If you are married, you will report your and your husband’s financial info. If your parents (or your husband’s) are paying bills for you you would have to report that also.</p>

<p>You’re 17 years old and you’ve been married for 2 years???</p>

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<p>I have met students from certain cultures who were married quite young.</p>

<p>For the OP, if you already filed FAFSA for the 2013-14 school year which is the one that does use 2012 income, and you were single the day you filed that form, you need to contact the financial aid director and explain that you are now married. It is up to the director to decide whether this info should be updated for this school year. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. So do call, and make sure you talk to an officer, not a student assistant, someone who has the ability to make a official Professional Judgement.</p>

<p>Anyone married on the date filing the FAFSA HAS to file as married. Has nothing to do with tax filings, dependency on taxes, etc. It’s not a choice. And, yes, both applicant’s and spouse’s incomes have to be reported and money given to either person has to be reported too, like if parents are paying some of the bills.</p>