My father did not pay taxes, whilst my mother did. Will I not receive FAFSA financial aid?

Paying for College
1

  1. My father and mother both have SSN

  2. My father and mother came from Central America a long time ago.

  3. They are separated, but my father decided he’d come live with my mom and her boyfriend (around 6 months ago) because he’s trying to save money to move to another state (I think?).

  4. My mother filed her 2015 taxes as head of household, as my father wasn’t living with us during the time. Obviously none of his taxes were part of that, since he didn’t live with us. The FAFSA site asked for his share of taxes, so I put zero.

2

Here are my required documents according to the college I’m applying to:

16/17 Marital Status Comment
16/17 Parent Tax Mismatch
2015 Par IRS Tax Transcript

3

Since both of your parents are living in the same household, both of their income and assets will have to go on your fafsa. Your dad needs to file his taxes. They will also ask for your mom’s taxes. If the school is requesting a tax transcript, then both of your parents will have to provide one.

Since your mom has already filed, she can order one by mail and get it back in ~ 10 days

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript

4

@BelknapPoint is there an issue with this mom filing as HOH?

5

Because your bio parents are living in the same household, you are required to report both incomes on the FAFSA. However, if your father had no income and paid no taxes, he’ll probably have to file a non-filer statement and the numbers won’t change (or won’t change much if he had a little income but was under the filing requirement). Just explain that they are separated (and were in 2015 so your mother filed HOH), but that they now (2016) are in the same household so you have included your father on FAFSA.

The tax status doesn’t always match the current situation, especially now that they are using prior-prior. There are going to be a good many filers who were married in 2015 but are now divorced, who were single and now married, bio parents living in the same household for financial reasons. Your mother can order a tax transcript for 2015 online. You can find the non-filer’s form on the school financial aid website.

6

For 2015? It doesn’t sound like it.

7

It’s a strange issue. Parents are still legally married, and now dad is living in the home …which means FAFSA will probably require both parents info. That seems to be the rule…both parents living in the home means both must provide info…even if separated or divorced.

Sounds like mom filed correctly (at the time), because her H wasn’t living there.

Does bio dad have an income? If so, why hasn’t he filed?