<p>I am in a serious dire situation. I'm graduating this year from High School and have already done my FAFSA. However, it has been brought to my attention that the school I've already gotten into needs my parents tax information. Okay, so I send in only my dad's tax information, but later today they asked for my Mom's tax information also. The problem starts here: My parents both filed as head of household at the same address. This was done without my knowledge and now I am afraid that if I do send in my parent's tax information that they will both suffer the consequences of cheating the system and I will not get and aid at all. I am at a loss as to what to do. I'm not sure if the school will report to the government about the taxes or not. I'm also trying to get the school to accept only my dad's tax return at the moment.</p>
<p>Anyone have any suggestions on how to approach this disaster? The stress of it is killing me.</p>
<p>Are your parents legally married? If so, neither qualifies for HoH status. If they’re divorced but share the same address, it’s likely only one would qualify unless they have separate residences in the same building and there are multiple children and varying amounts of support. Why did they do this? Which parent was custodial for FAFSA? It sounds as if they filed that as married parents, otherwise a FAFSA school would not be verifying both parents income.</p>
<p>What will probably happen is that the school will catch the tax filing error and your parents will have to amend their returns with the IRS in order for you to receive your financial aid. I’m sure FA officers have seen it all by now, and they are not in the business of tax law enforcement. They simply have to follow federal regs to distribute aid. Perhpas kelsmom will see this and post the details of how the procedure works.</p>
<p>Are they divorced or separated? If so, and if they each claim at least one dependent (do you have siblings they support?) then they could file head of household. But that’s a different matter from FAFSA. You only submit one parent’s tax information if in fact your parents are not married. If they’re married, then you need to supply both parents’ information on the FAFSA, and it looks like you need to send in both parents’ returns to your college.</p>
But are they divorced? Or are they married? If divorced, one of them has to amend their return to file as single. The other can remain HOH. If married, then they must amend both returns to file as married filing joint, or married filing separate. If they refuse, then you’re probably out of luck.</p>
<p>If not, then I think you need to sit down with them and explain that both of them filing as head-of-household doesn’t work either for your financial aid or for the IRS. In terms of unraveling this, I’m guessing they may need some professional assistance.</p>
<p>If not actually divorced/separated, you also would have had to list the date of the divorce/separation. Did you do this? Is this a FAFSA only school or did you file Profile as well?</p>
<p>I hope that you didn’t just make something up and then you and dad both signed that you were providing true and correct info! This could be a blessing that they will make you correct it before you receive any aid as it could mean huge penalties after the fact!</p>
<p>Zeke –
I know this must seem awful, and it is really a mess. You really have my sympathy, but the underlying problem is clearly the fault of your parents. I am very sorry that they’re putting you through this turmoil.</p>