FAFSA: members of household vs. number of exemptions on tax return?

Paying for College
1

<p>My family consists of 2 parents (divorced), my brother, and me. (both me and brother are in college)</p>

<p>I'm filing the FAFSA using my mom's tax information. She claims me as a dependent (for an exemption), but my dad claims my brother.</p>

<p>However, both me and my brother consider ourselves members of my mom's household. So I feel it's legitimate to say that the household has 3 members with 2 going to college, as opposed to 2 members with 1 going to college.</p>

<p>Could I run into problems if I put this down? Is number of exemptions ~ number of members of household, or not? I've poked around and some people say that they don't match the "members of household" with the number of exemptions claimed, but not too sure about it.</p>

<p>I guess my main worry is because (based on tinkering with numbers on the fafsa calculator) i'll be eligible for a Pell grant if my brother is considered a member, but nothing if he's not.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Dependence for FAFSA, and dependence for federal taxes are two different things. It is quite common for students to be on one parent’s taxes, but part of another parent’s household for FAFSA.</p>

3

<p>Happymom is correct. The dependents on the tax return and the number in household on the FAFSA are independent of one another.</p>

4

<p>The question is in which household did you spend the most time? Both you and your brother.</p>