Hello, I am trying to fill out parts of my fafsa and I’m at the part where it’s asking about my parents . My mom is divorced from my dad who is deceased and married to my step father. They both claim HOH but my mom has me down as a dependent on her taxes and he does not. So far she has been the one paying for all my school expenses with me helping as I work now but what should I put as he doesn’t contribute to my education at all?
Thank you for answering!
The fafsa says to put everyone in the household, so if he’s living with you in the house. He contributes. But if you want to be sure, I would just contact financial aid and ask them directly because if you make a mistake it would delay your fafsa… hope this helps
@BelknapPoint can two married people (parent and step parent) BOTH use HOH as their tax filing status? I thought married folks (in most cases) had two filing status choices…married filing jointlly, and married filing separately.
@“parislover1412!” Were these folks married in 2017? Are your mom and stepdad living together?
@ririalex19 the directions for filing a FAFSA are VERY clear. The parent and the spouse must BOTH be listed on the FAFSA form. So this student is required to list both the parent and step parent income and assets on the FAFSA form. It doesn’t matter at all whether the step dad plans to contribute to college or any other costs…or not. Fact is…he is contributing to the household income. He is a member of the family now.
Tax filing status does not matter either. In other words, it doesn’t matter who is declaring this student on their taxes.
Both the parent and spouse need to be included on this FAFSA form.
Your mom and stepdad live together so they can’t both claim HOH. That will need to be corrected.
Your mom and stepdad are your “parents” on FAFSA since you all live in the same household.
Your mom and stepdad (who are your parents) should be filing either as married filing joint or married filing separately. They both can’t file as HOH. I think that if one parent lives in the US and the other parent/step-parent lives in another country (and they’re still married), then the US parent can file HOH.
It is possible for a married person to file as HOH, if all the rules are met. However, I think the circumstances that would allow both spouses to file as HOH would be extremely unlikely, if even possible.
^^
I think this has come up before and for a married person to file HOH then the other spouse has to live outside the country. Maybe there are other exceptions???
This student th8nks BOTH parents filed as HOH.
If that is the case, they might want to talk to a tax professional and see if this is actually allowed. If it isn’t, then this would need to be corrected if it was not allowed in 2017 for this couple.
But regardless…the student must include both the parent and step parent on the FAFSA form.
You have 2 separate issues:
If your parent and stepparent are married, then both their incomes and assets should be on the FAFSA and any other financial aid forms.
Regarding the taxes, that will be a separate situation between you and the financial aid office at the school where you will ultimately attend. The college will ultimately ask for IRS transcript.
@sybbie719 is correct. You will not be able to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to complete your FAFSA because your parents are not both on one tax return.
So…order tax transcript for both of them now.
BUT be aware that their tax filing status could be questioned by the financial aid departments. Really…I think that’s worth straightening out with a tax professional…now.