<p>Hi,</p>
<p>This is the situation I find myself in. My parents just got divorced on Feb. 19. As a result of losing her job recently, my mother's current total taxable income, derived entirely from alimony, is $8,700 per year. My parents used to file taxes "married filing jointly", and with my father in a very high-income job and my mom in a very low-income one, the FAFSA would incorrectly show my EFC (as calculated by the last year's tax returns, and, in the case of a divorce, solely by the custodial parent, if I am correctly informed) as being quite high for the past year's tax returns (2009, just filed for their last time together). I live and have lived solely with my mother for some time and am essentially estranged from my father.</p>
<p>Do I just have to wait until 2010 tax season to fill out a FAFSA with the real income of my mother to be calculated, or is there something I can do to file a FAFSA for the 2010-2011 college year?</p>
<p>Thank you for your help.</p>
<p>
No it would not.
If you parents filed jointly for 2009, even though they got divorced in 2010, your mother would just include her income only on the FAFSA.
If there are joint assets (like a joint savings account) she would include half of that amount when she completes the fafsa.</p>
<p>Were your parents separated in 2009? If so, your mother can file FAFSA as the custodial parent and use only her portion of the 2009 adjusted gross income, even though your parents filed taxes jointly in 2009.</p>
<p>It’s not the official date of divorce that’s key for FAFSA. It’s the date of separation where the intent is to divorce.</p>
<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I appreciate the replies. I am not sure as to if there is a legal definition for “separated”, I see “legally separated” a lot in custody papers and such. I live solely with my mother during the year 2009, but I don’t know if they technically were “separated with the intent to divorce”.</p>
<p>If your father wasn’t in the house at all in 2009, this is clearly sufficient to satisfy the FAFSA definition of separated.</p>
<p>Your parents are now divorced, and that is what you will put on the FAFSA. You will ONLY list your mother’s 2009 income on the FAFSA, as well as her portion of the AGI & taxes paid. For help on separating this out, you can see AVG-92 (# on bottom of page):<a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/0910AVGCh4.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/0910AVGCh4.pdf</a>. It explains how to break this out. You won’t use what she “will” make in 2010 … you have to use what she did make in 2009. You will also need to split any assets in half for reporting on the FAFSA.</p>