Today at 12:13 am in UC Transfers
My daughter was living with her boyfriend and baby, and lived with his Aunt. She had been getting FAFSA because she lived with us and we are disabled. The Boyfriends Mother filled out her FAFSA while living there this past year and claimed that they were married and My daughter just found this out today. She had applied for her FAFSA and hadn’t received it yet. She had been waiting to get it, so we called today and found this out. We are SHOCKED. She never knew she had claimed this on her FAFSA, but thought she did for income taxes. He doesn’t make enough to keep her from getting FAFSA, my worry is now they want a divorce decree before she can get help with her school to provide a better life her and her son. Who can be held liable. Would it be my daughter and her boyfriend, or the Mother that filled it out and had her sign it. I don’t know what to do. Do I need to get a divorce under way. We just went to an Attorney over custody and he did raise his eyebrows about the income taxes, my daughter signed them, but has never had a tax return in her life. Never worked, just been going to school full time. She had NO idea this is what filled out on her FAFSA. Anyone please help me.
Is your daughter in fact married? If not why can’t she she correct her fafsa?
You can’t initiate a divorce from someone to whom you were never married. That’s the easy question to answer.
Not sure how to help you with everything else but you should know that the tax issue is different from the custody issue which is different from financial aid.
Start at the beginning. Has your daughter ever been married? How old is she? Is she currently living with you or on her own? How many semesters of college has she finished and other than a Pell grant, what other financial aid has she been getting?
And remind your D NEVER to give someone else access to her social security number. That’s a big piece of learning right there. And NEVER sign a form without reading it. Even a thirty second scan of the tax return would have shown “Married” as her tax status- which of course is bogus if she is not married to the BF.
Your daughter is ultimately responsible for everything on her FAFSA.
Even though BF’s mom filled it out, she could not have done it with out information from your daughter including her FSA ID and social security number. Your daughter through her electronic signature has attested that all information on the FAFSA is true.
Your daughter needs to straighten this out because right now she is defrauding the federal government. This means she could get kicked out of school and have to repay any monies that she has fraudulently received.
Her issues with the IRS is a whole separate case.
Does your daughter work?
Who is supporting your grandson?
If your daughter is providing more than half of his support she will be considered independent on the FAFSA and will file based on her own income/assets.
Well, I just talked with my daughter and our Attorney. When she went into the FAFSA program, she was living with us. She never used any monies from the Government. The FAFSA that is in question is for this current semester and when she went to sign up, she found where his Mother had filled it out, with them being married and she corrected it. That is the problem, she had her info from tax return. So, her FAFSA is being held up, because it looked like she had gotten a divorce, and that is what the school said they need a copy of. So with that being said, I’m relieved that she hasn’t used any of the FAFSA money. She needs to explain to them what has happened, with her X’s Mother filling the paper work out on the computer. Glad we caught this, seems like this Mother was trying to get her in trouble. Her taxes are a different story. The Mother had a CPA do them, and my daughter never signed anything, they signed it themselves. My daughter is very immature, and doesn’t even know how all of the taxes work, she has never held a job. Always been a student. Thanks for the help everyone.
Did your daughter receive any kind of financial aid; grants or loans?
Who has been paying for her to attend college?
How long has she been in college?
Your daughter needs to file a corrected tax form if the one filed (or was fraudulently filed) is incorrect. She/her boyfriend may have received a tax credit like an earned income credit based on her “husband’s” income and their status as a family of 3.
If she is still living with these people, this could be a dangerous course of action. She needs to understand what she’s filing and signing.
Has your D received a Pell grant? That’s government money. How has she been paying for college until now?
No one could complete your daughter’s FAFSA without her FSA ID. Did she give that number to anyone?
Also, FAFSA is a financial,aid application form. The FAFSA itself does not “give” anything. It determines eligibility for federally funded need based aid.
Your daughter’s tax status is a completely different issue.
If your daughter has NEVER had a job, what sort of tax return would have been filed on her behalf?
"She needs to understand what she’s filing and signing. "
^This.
When this crisis is over she needs to learn how to do her own taxes/FAFSA and how they work. Being a student and being immature is really no excuse. She’s an adult and a mother and with that comes being accountable. The government isn’t a big fan of the “I didn’t know” defense.
I’m assuming aunt filed them as married so that the boyfriend could take the EITC. Your D will also need to be careful if she is claiming any other benefits/food stamps/programs/whatever as a single mom, if they are then telling the IRS that they are married.