<p>I'm a senior and my mom is doing this kind of "scheme" in regard to familily income on financial aid. </p>
<p>I live with a family of 7 plus a grandma but on my last tax return my mom put my primary care taker as just my grandma. She did this so instead of me having a family of 7 plus 80,000 income, i would have a family of 2 with 20,000~ income </p>
<p>1) is this legal? It officialy says on the tax returns that my grandma is my primary care taker </p>
<p>2) Will this even be beneficial to me financial aid wise?</p>
<p>3) anyway i can fix this??</p>
<p>No, it will not be beneficial for financial aid. It doesn’t matter what the tax return says. For financial aid, your parent’s info is required. A grandparent is *never *counted as a parent for financial aid purposes (unless she has legally adopted the child).</p>
<p>Also, if this is an American tax return, you may run into other issues as your Grandma probably can not legitimately claim you as a dependent. There are fairly strict rules about who can claim a child.</p>
<p>Mum needs to file taxes correctly next year. If you are verified, which is likely, no aid will be processed until correct returns are filed.</p>
<p>OK thank you, but how do i break it to my mom that I have to report the truth? She says its okay since the last tax report says this and shes feeling pretty smart about it too</p>
<p>What tax form is your mom filing? If it is yours, you should be filing your own and not sign anything that is fraudulent. If it is your grandmother’s, then it is fraudulent if she is claiming you as a dependent if she doesn’t meet that definition according to the tax instructions. </p>
<p>When you fill out the FAFSA, you will have to provide your parent income information and supply your mother’s tax return, no matter who claims you on the tax return.</p>
<p>If things don’t add up you will be subject to verification which will entail providing details about how rent is met, food is paid for etc. You could delay and endanger your aid.</p>
<p>Tell you mother that getting involved in a fraud scheme is likely to backfire and leave you in the lurch. Your mother and grandmother may also get into a situation with the IRS where they are fined.</p>
<p>Um…your mom must report the truth on your financial aid application forms. Falsifying information for financial aid gain is fraud. In addition to losing the aid you think you might get, you also run the risk of losing your offer of admission to the college. The FAFSA is actually filed by YOU…the student, using your parent’s information. Your PIN signature, and your parent’s PIN signature is to state that all information is accurate.</p>
<p>As noted above, if your parent is not listed, this will surely trigger verification. Your parents’ tax return WILL be required, not grandma’s. Your parents’ incomes and assets will be required even if they don’t declare you as a dependent. And once the school receives your parents’ tax transcript (required), the school will be required to change that FAFSA to reflect the tax return income information…and yes, they will do so.</p>
<p>In addition, the time it takes to do so could easily drag into when you will need to know your aid to make a college choice. Why would you risk this?</p>
<p>My mom did all this not me! She just told me today ): I’m highschool and my parents will do their taxes around jan-feb. Can they fix this during this time??? I’m just going to report the truth on all college stuff but my mom says im my grandmas dependent on the last tax return.
Help! ):</p>
<p>Show her the FAFSA link. Hopefully she will realize that it makes no difference whatsoever who lists you as a dependent. For FAFSA, you are your parents dependent until you turn 24.</p>
<p>You cannot help what your parents did in terms of how they and your grandparents filed their tax returns. BUt the FAFSA is your baby. The instructions for the FAFSA are clear. Your have to list your custodial parent if your parents are separated or divorced, and both parents if they are together. Your grandmother doesn’t come into the picture at all. Even if your parents were not alive, your grandmother would not be the one on the FAFSA unless she’s adopted you. It doesn’t matter a whit who claimed you as a dependent on the tax returns. FAFSA wants the info of your parents, or just custodial parent if divorce or separation are in the picture.</p>
<p>Ok will do. Hopefully I can change my dependent back to my parents before ACTUALLY filling out fafsa in Jan because right now im just a senior applying to Cal States and UCs.</p>
<p>So if I tell the truth regarding finances even though my grandma is listed as dependent, everything will be ok?</p>
<p>When you complete your FAFSA, you will be required to list your parents income and assets. You will use the information from THEIR 2013 tax return…not grandmas.</p>
<p>Ok… I understand. Thank you all!</p>
<p>Read the instructions to the FAFSA. It tells you whose income and assets need to be reported. Not your grandmother or your brother or who claimed you as a dependent on their return. If you meet their definitions of being dependent, and your parents are alive, you have to list your parents’ info . </p>
<p>Some times kids with divorced parents are on one parent’s tax return as a dependent but live with the other parent. For FAFSA purposes, the custodial parent is the one with whom the kid lived with the most in the prior year, not the one who is named in the divorce papers as custodial or who claims the kid on the tax return . FAFSA does not want to know your grandma’s income.</p>
<p>Now in terms of being listed as a dependent of your grandma for tax purposes, that might be an issue that your parents and grandma will have to work out if the IRS ever looks at this. But for FAFSA, you use parents’ info.</p>