File my own taxes?

Paying for College
1

<p>My dad said that hes going to ask our accountant to file my own taxes (financial independent from my parents) to increase the amount of aid money. I worked last summer and I plan to work part time this summer. Again this would be for the 2012 - 2013 academic year. How do you guys see this?</p>

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<p>Filing you own tax return does not make you an independent student for financial aid purposes and will not affect your financial aid. Where did your father get this idea?</p>

3

<p>[Who</a> is a dependent student? < FAFSA FAQ | FAFSA Online](<a href=“Everything You Need to Know About FAFSA | Edvisors”>Everything You Need to Know About FAFSA | Edvisors)</p>

<p>Read this, then have dad read it. Unless you meet one of the conditions, you are still dependent for financial aid purposes, as MommaJ pointed out. Tax filing has nothing to do with it. You can live on your own and completely support yourself and you still will not be independent for financial aid purposes unless you meet one condition. We just came to a right understanding of this too, but from a different angle.</p>

4

<p>Even though you won’t be independent for financial aid, sometimes a student and their parents will end up paying less federal and state income tax overall, if the student is not a dependent for tax purposes. Ask the accountant to run the numbers both ways to see what is most advantageous from a tax standpoint. But you do need to remember that changes in your income tax can also affect the FAFSA and CSS Profile results so you may want to crunch those numbers as well.</p>

5

<p>What if my parents don’t support me anymore? I mean what if I moved out of the house and live in an apartment by myself without their help? I’m still considered to be dependent? These requirements are a little bit silly to me. I mean you really have to be married or have children to be independent?</p>

6

<p>Not unless you’re married, are supporting a child of your own, are 24 years of age, are military veteran or an orphan, or were placed into foster care before age 18.</p>

<p>You can move out of the house, be completely self- supporting for several years, but unless you can meet of the criteria above, you still a dependent for financial aid purposes.</p>

7

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<p>Or a veteran, or 24 years of age, (there are a few other ones, too). </p>

<p>Think about it- if it was as easy as just moving out and such, every 18 year old would do it to get financial aid. It doesn’t work that way.</p>

8

<p>I will agree with all of the replies. You can’t just move out and be considered “independent” for college financial aid purposes.</p>

9

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Living on your own, being self supporting, and not being claimed as a dependent on your parents tax returns do not make you independent for FA purposes. To be independent for FA purposed you must be able to answer no to at least one of the dependency questions on FAFSA. They are:</p>

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