I am filling out the FAFSA for next yr while I am currently in my first year at a 4yr university. One of the questions on my FAFSA is to put the amount for checking account, cash, and saving of student. So i only have checking of those three, if I send my parent (who is not the one on the FAFSA because my partners are divorced) a check, making my checking account smaller, would that be illegal or is that just a smart thing to do to not hurt my FAFSA?
Thank you! Just wondering before I take anymore action.
No, you can’t send your parent a check to deal with this. You can pay bills or other expenses you owe or buy things you need.
What if I send it to them and then they pay for college expenses with it, also just a question again I have not done this and don’t want to mess anything up, but how would the FAFSA or whatever group process it do anything wrong cause couldn’t it just be a “gift”? Thank you for taking your time!
Even if you send your parents YOUR money…it is still your money.
How much are we talking here? $100,000 or $1000?
About like 12k, how would they know though just asking?
The fact that you put the word gift in quotes is telling. If you give your non-custodial parent money with the expectation that it will be used for your benefit, that means it’s not really a gift and it should still be counted as your asset.
Do the right thing.
Really? You know that it’s wrong, but you want to know if anyone would find out? What you are asking about is a crime, with real ramifications.
You can’t do this unless there is a legitimate reason you are giving them the money. If there is a legitimate reason that you could give in the unlikely event you were audited, you are probably fine.
See if you have any bills that you can prepay or any major expenses or purchases coming up that you can pay now. That’s the easiest way to get the money out of your account and you won’t have to worry about justifying it down the road. If you just do it for the purpose of getting more financial aid, that’s fraud. You need a legitimate reason. It doesn’t have to be a great reason, but a legitimate one.
Any chance that parent owns your vehicle that you can buy from them? Or you can prepay them rent for next summer?
Just throwing out a couple ideas.
Oh for heavens sake. Consider yourself lucky. You have $12,000 saved. 20% will be added to your EFC…so $2400.
Here is something else you could do…you could immediately place it in a 529 account. This will be assessed at the parent value for FAFSA EFC purposes…5.6%. You will need to use it for educational purposes.
Ok thank you guys all I think I’ll just try to pre pay costs for next semester.
? Just pay for the college expenses yourself. Send your school the check yourself.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but in places where living expenses are put, and things like transportation and feeding etc are included, is i a fixed value or variable depending on the student?
Living expenses are not reported on FAFSA.
Is any of the money in your checking account from financial aid (loans, grants)?
No it’s not
Didn’t you report it last year on your first FAFSA?
I didn’t have that much and I got a job over the last yr as well, I got it a lot from relatives over the past year and working