Hi Friends, Our family moved from India last year May (2015) as permanent residents. Since then we lived with our uncle. 5 months before we moved to a rented house. My mother doesn’t even make a single penny. How we pay rent is, I am working, I have two sisters working in small jobs. We all are working for minimum wage. I am a high school senior in Florida and am planning to apply for colleges in and outside Florida. We don’t even save a dollar, so we didn’t file tax. But we are giving tax to the government from our each paycheck (automatically). What should I do? How do I fill my FAFSA?
You should file taxes. You are all extremely low income so when you file taxes you will not have to pay but instead will get the money back that was automatically taken out. It is to your benefit to file. Then you will also have the forms necessary to the Fafsa.
Your mother will need to complete fafsa, but first she will need to log on to IRS website or call and get a verification of non-filing (this documents for fafsa that she is officially not required to file and confirms her extremely low income). If you earned over 10,300 you are required to file, if not you still may want to file as it is likely you will get some cash back.
You need to be filing your taxes if you (any of you) are trying to become citizens. You are not too late to file for 2015 without penalty. There are agencies that will help you if you need help completing the forms. Florida doesn’t have state income taxes so that’s a step saved for you.