My daughter will be going to graduate school in June. While filling out the FAFSA on Question 45J it asks about money received on her behalf. In 2015, the year that the income information is used, she was a full time student in undergraduate school. She did not receive any financial aid, we did not fill out a FAFSA, and we paid all her expenses as our dependent. Do we need to include the money spent on tuition and living expenses (rent, utilities) since some of the bills such as school bill, rent, etc were under her name but we were under obligation to pay them?
My interpretation has always been that if a student is dependent in a given year, the expectation is that the parent should pay these costs. I have instructed students not to report parent money for a year in which they were dependent. If the school questions it & asks how your child could afford to live on no income, she would indicate that she was a dependent student whose parents paid her costs.
The 2018-2019 fafsa uses the 2016 info not 2015
Good catch … unless summer is a trailer to 17-18, in which case the student would have to complete both 17-18 & 18-19 now. And for 2016, if the student was not in school, any bill in the student’s name that was paid by someone else does have to be reported as money received.
She has to complete both since she starts in June.