<p>when i filled out the fafsa earlier, my mom hadn't done taxes yet, so i had to use her 2012 tax information. now i have to go through fafsa verification and use her new information, and because my brother claimed himself for tax purposes (he still lives here and goes to school part time), my mom now has one fewer tax exemption. i'm wondering, does this mean that my EFC will go up? i'm really worried...</p>
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Did you submit your mother’s tax transcript to your school or did you use DRT to correct your FAFSA?</p>
<p>i’m in the middle of using the DRT (for some reason the website’s down right now…) and that’s how i saw that the number of exemptions went from 4 to 3</p>
<p>how old is your brother and how much does he earn? </p>
<p>I’m not sure if he still counts as part of your household or not. It may depend on his age and whether he is providing most of his support. </p>
<p>however, think about it…if your parents are no longer paying much for your brother (support-wise), then your parents can provide MORE for you…talk to your parents about that. So, if he now pays for his phone, car insurance, car, much of his food, etc…then…</p>
<p>also, depending on your brother’s age and income, your parents may want to charge his some rent, and that can help pay for any rise in EFC.</p>
<p>If your mothers income less income taxes for 2013 is different from the estimated figure you used, then yes, your EFC will change. How much the exemption will change the number is difficult to say, as it will increase the tax owed which will reduce the income used. </p>
<p>he’s 20. i don’t know how much he earns, but it’s not a lot. and he has a new job now, and i think he makes even less there. my brother has been working part time jobs for the last few years, and we still struggle. i guess the only difference is now he wanted to do his own taxes…which is something i thought he was doing before, anyway. it hardly helps at all because he spends almost all of his money on personal wants, he lives here, and my mom still pays for his food, phone, and things like that. my mom would never charge him rent. we’re moving to a much cheaper place soon, but yeah, his job doesn’t really change anything. </p>
<p>great…this money stuff is so stressful i just feel like taking a gap year to regroup because i have no idea what i’m doing and my mom is so reluctant to help me with anything because she doesn’t know anything, either, and she’s just becoming more and more worried about how much money they’re gonna want her to pay. i guess it doesn’t matter, though, because if it’s too much, i just can’t go. the EFC as of now is already a stretch </p>
<p>your mom may never want him to pay rent, but if he’s spending all of his money on FUN and personal wants, while your mom struggles (and may be running up debt), then it is time to expect him to pay for some of his stuff…some food, cellphone, insurance, etc. that is only fair.</p>
<p>Let’s wait and see what the actual EFC is going to be. Hugs. Hope it’s not too bad of a change.</p>
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my mom hadn’t done taxes yet, so i had to use her 2012 tax
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<p>did your mom earn more in 2013???</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse thank you! i really hope so, too…but i’m preparing myself for the worst.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids i’m actually starting to question whether or not i used the 2012 tax information, because the income i put in the FAFSA before she did her taxes matches exactly what her 2013 tax return says…there’s no difference between the two answers for the income question.</p>
<p>But if he still lives at home that means your parents are supporting him. Providing housing would be more than half the support.</p>
<p>FAFSA uses AGI, requests add backs of things like 401k, HSA contributions that one is allowed to deduct for tax purposes and then reduces that amount by state and federal income taxes. So that your mother will owe more taxes (likely) with one fewer income might soften the hit a bit.</p>
<p>Your brother and mother might have been able to have done better had he stayed her dependent, by the way, and your mother could have given him what he would have gotten and kept the excess and also saved maybe on the FAFSA hit. That’s something you might ask your brother if he could recompute and see if there are some refunds pending if he did things that way. Usually it’s better, you all pay less net, if the parent kept the exemption and tax credit. Did he claim AOC, for example? Or other tax credits? </p>
<p>Did you finish updating your FAFSA? If so, you will see your new EFC. Does your college guarantee to meet full need for all students? If not, all of this worrying maybe for nothing. Your aid might not change anyway.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse i have no idea about any of those things, i’ll see. </p>
<p>@thumper1 no, i haven’t done it yet, i still can’t log into the fafsa website. i’ll try again soon. yes, my college meets full need…</p>
<p>i was just finally able to log in, and somehow my EFC went down almost $1600?? how is that possible??</p>
<p>If your school meets full need, it either uses the CSS Profile or a form of its own (Princeton uses their own form). You may not see a change in your aid, depending on how your school uses the Profile info. Did you update that as well? You may not need to do anything as the school can use the DRT to deal with income.</p>
<p>yeah, in the email the school sent me, they just asked for a dependent verification worksheet and an updated fafsa (via the DRT). it didn’t say anything about the CSS profile</p>
<p>The school can correct anything they need to correct given your tax return.</p>
<p>Good luck! If your aid made the school affordable…it doesn’t seem that this will change…it will still be affordable.</p>
<p>what a relief. i don’t get why the EFC is so different, but i’m not complaining. thank you!!</p>
<p>Well…I’m just guessing. The official word will come from your college. </p>