Hi I’m the custodial parent and I receive no child support. My daughter lives with me 100% of the time and I pay 100% of the bills. I’m aware that I have to fill out the fafsa paperwork. I pay alimony to the tune of about 2k/month I’m wondering if I am a able to deduct this from my total income reported to fafsa or not?
FAFSA asks for a parent’s AGI and earned income. To the extent that you rightfully deduct the alimony that you pay when you figure your AGI as you complete your tax form, it will not be included in the AGI figure that you report on FAFSA. It will not be excluded when you report your earned income.
somehow seems unfair (as if the government or life is ever fair). you pay 40K out to your ex but yet you don’t get (credit) for that money that you don’t have.
To repeat: alimony payments are not included in the AGI that is reported on FAFSA. If you pay alimony, this is to your benefit.
Your alimony will be included in your earned income.
Your alimony will NOT be included in your AGI. Your AGI is what the fafsa uses to compute your need based aid.
Profile schools can look at this differently, however.
If you are paying $40,000 a year in alimony…is your AGI income sufficiently low to qualify for need based aid anyway?
OR
Regardless…your AGI is what is considered. The FAFSA is used to determine the awarding of federally funded need based aid, primarily. Your AGI would need to be pretty low to qualify for federally funded grant money.
And everyone can take the federally funded loans regardless of income.
$2k per month would be $24k per year, not $40k. Are you paying $2k per month? Or are you paying $3300 per month?
Either way, if you’ve been ordered to pay THAT much in spousal support, that suggests that your income is quite high…likely too high for federal aid anyway. Federal aid is for low/modest income people…often with incomes below $50k per year.
I don’t know how alimony and taxes all work. if you’re providing that much in alimony, then do you get to claim her as a dependent on your taxes?
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc452.html
Are you deducting the alimony paid on your tax return?