<p>I'm 19, and I go to school full time. I have a part time job, and have made so far around 8,000+. I pay my books, tuition, clothing, car insurance, etc. </p>
<p>My parents are telling me to file as independent. When I go to fill out my 2012-2013, will this affect the $$ I get back from FAFSFA.</p>
<p>Last year I didnt have a job, and I still have to pay 1/3 of my tuition because my parents made too much, but they don't give me anything for my tuition.</p>
<p>No, how you file your taxes will make no difference on FAFSA. Not a dependent for taxes and Independent for FAFSA as 2 completely different things. To be independent for FAFSA you must be able to answer yes to one of the dependency questions (age - 24 or more, have a dependent of your own that you support >50%, a veteran etc etc). None of the questions relate to tax filing status or whether you are self supporting.</p>
<p>Your income is over the protected income limit (assuming none of it is WS), so your EFC will actually increase a little.</p>
<p>There is an education tax credit called the American Opportunity tax credit. You may find that it is better for your parents to claim you and get the AOC and they can give it to you to help with your expenses. That is what we do with our daughter as it is more beneficial for us to get the tax credit than for her to (i.e. we get more $$$s back than she would). But, if they are not willing to give it back to you, your income probably qualified you to get the refundable part of the credit - in that case you may get some money back on taxes.</p>
<p>You can’t technically file for the FAFSA as an independent until you’re 24, or a number of other restrictions I don’t think you’d meet. But you can submit it without your parents information, as a dependent, but this limits your aid/Stafford options.</p>
<p>As for your actual taxes…you could file as an independent if you’re careful about what you and your parents report. Obviously then your parents can’t list you as a dependent on theirs, so they will get less of a refund.</p>
<p>Also, with some colleges, even after you are 24 you have to prove that you have been self-supporting for at least five years. You also have to state that your parents haven’t provided you with more that $700 in support.</p>
^^^ I have never ever heard that before - it must be very rare. For FAFSA and federal aid this is not the case at all. A moot point as I don’t believe the OP is 24 yet.</p>
<p>This is ususally the case with professional schools (law and medicine) where even thoough you are an indendent student, ou must submit your parents income and assets.</p>
<p>It can also happen in a situation where a student attends a school that gives a large amount of institutional aid. Usually if you start as a dependent student, you must finish as a dependent student, regardless of age or marital status.</p>
<p>This is absolutely NOT TRUE…unless you are applying to SOME medical or law schools…where you still have to provide parent information even though you would otherwise be considered an independent student (because you have a bachelors degree already).</p>
<p>Where did you hear this??? And what college(s) would this apply to?</p>
<p>Unicornbubbles…according to other threads here, you were accepted as a transfer student to Cornell. Unless you could answer NO to all of the questions for independent status on the FAFSA, you WOULD be considered dependent for financial aid purposes. Are you a veteran, married, supporting a dependent child, over 24, have a bachelors degree, are or were a ward of the state, an orphan? If not, you would not be independent under for financial aid purposes.</p>
<p>Thumper, I believe you meant “Unless you could answer ‘yes’ to one of the questions for independent status on the FAFSA…” If you answered “no” to all, you would be dependent, so the word “unless” confused me for a moment. </p>
<p>Unicornbubbles - I don’t understand how a school could say you have to provide 5 years of proof as an independent at age 24 when the FAFSA is federal aid. I can understand if it is for school-provided aid, but I would think not for FAFSA purposes. Perhaps it is true for a select few graduate programs, as I am not familiar with med or law school, but that wasn’t what the OP was asking about.</p>
<p>Also, the OP’s topic was about filing taxes, not the FAFSA. At least in their subject heading. And asking how the tax status affects the FAFSA.</p>
<p>As I stated in my previous post, at schools that give institutional aid, you could be independent on the FAFSA but you may still have to provide your parent’s income/assets for institutional aid. </p>
<p>In unicornbubbles situation at Cornell, while s/he was independent for federal aid purposes, s/he had to prove that s/he was self sufficient for 5 years to be considered independent for institutional aid purposes.</p>
<p>Unicornbubbles does make a good point. Very often folks give the advice that students should just “declare themselves independent” when they run into obstacles regarding college funding with their families. Gaining independent status is VERY hard to do…and even with that, colleges that are giving institutional aid (and therefore require forms and info other than the FAFSA) are well within their rights to gain additional information or have additional requirements to determine independent status.</p>
<p>The process of gaining independent status as a college undergrad is NOT an easy one.</p>