I am 20 years old and I got married in 2017, I am filling out paperwork for this year of college (2018-2019), My wife is also 20 and she goes to a community college and only went part time last semester and will part time again this semester until going full time into her dental program next fall. I was wondering for all tax purposes and such am I not considered independent for my FAFSA and then how will this affect my federal loans and my qualifications for them, I go to a private college. Will I actually end up receiving more federal support or less? Combined we only make around $16,000 a year. Also for tax returns even if for fafsa and those items of being considered independent can we still file our taxes as married filed jointly and have our parents claim us as dependent? Thank you so much for you help literally any and all information you can provide will be of great benefit, I plan on meeting with my financial aid office and speaking with a tax specialist soon but would love to have as much knowledge going in as I possibly can!
If you are married in 2017, you can file a joint return for 2017.
I’m not a tax expert…so I can’t answer the question about parents declaring you as dependents.
For the 2018-2019 FAFSA, you will be using the 2016 tax info when you were not married…and your parents probably DID declare you as dependents.
@Madison85 or @BelknapPoint perhaps you can better explain the tax dependency.
But that had NOTHING to do with financial aid for the upcoming year. The 2018-2019 FAFSA will use your income pLUS your wife’s income from 2016. You will need both of your tax returns and you will need to do some adding to get your numbers. You won’t be able to use the IRS Data Retrieval tool…so also order tax transcripts for both of you.
Did you file your FAFSA after you got married? If so, you ARE independent for financial aid purposes. BUT this doesn’t mean your financial aid will increase. There is more to the formula than just being married, and independent. It is possible that you and your wife will both now be eligible for a portion of the Pell Grant. And you both can get an increased amount in Direct Loan money as independent students. Anything above those amounts would be at the discretion of your colleges.
If your 2018-2019 FAFSA was filed at the end of 2017…before you got married…I think you need to go and talk to your financial aid departments and see what to do…since you are married now.
@kelsmom would they be able to amend the fafsa to reflect their married status…?
You and your wife are independent for federal aid purposes.
This means that if your were not previously Pell eligible, you may be pell eligible now. The amount of money you can borrow from the federal government has increased.
Whether or not you get more need based aid from your college depends on their policies. Most FAFSA only schools do not meet 100% demonstrated need. If your college uses your parents information (CSS profile/their own financial aid forms) to give out their own institutional aid, they already have policies in place where if you start as a dependent student, you finish as a dependent student even if you have a life event (marriage, having a child, etc) that makes you independent.
Remember any monies paid on your behalf (this includes your bills that are paid by your parents/others) must be claimed as income on the FAFSA.
However, should you get separated, divorced, and your being married is the only reason that you are independent, you revert back to being a dependent student.
I believe that your parents can claim you as dependents and take the AOTC if eligible but you have to do ‘married filing separately’.
Since the 2018-2019 FAFSA forms use 2016 data, this would be any amount your parents paid on your behalf in 2016.
Are your parents going to continue to support you and your college studies until you both graduate?
How are you paying your living expenses?
If your wife is only going to college 1/2 time, she would only be eligible for half of the Pell amount.
Your parents cannot claim you as dependents if you are married filing jointly if you have income/taxes:
I don’t think you have to report support for 2016 since you were a dependent then. You’d report your income in 2016 because that’s what the question asks. You’d report your assets as of today because that’s what the question asks. It would be similar to a case where parents divorced in 2017 but a formerly non-working spouse made $0 in 2016 because he/she was being supported by a working spouse. There was no alimony in 2016, there were no child support payments. Just how it works out sometimes.
Many new grads fill out the FAFSA with information from when they were dependents. They made little 2 tax years earlier but were supported by a parent.