<p>After attending a FAFSA prep meeting at my school a few weeks ago my mom and I agreed that I will fill out my fafsa at 12:01 am January 1st. She has agreed to give me her tax returns from 2012 but refuses to give me any of her bank account info such as savings and checkings. Last year she only made $38,000 for our family of four. This year she has a better paying job. (Do I include her new job for this year's FAFSA or next year's?) My uncle was also used to be our landlord. He passed last summer and the 2 flat we are staying in is now owned by my grandparents. The apartment will soon foreclose. We haven't had to pay rent for the past year and a half due my grandparents unwillingness to collect. My mom has saved this money and intends to use it for a down payment on a house. We should be moving as early as January or February. The problem is that by the time I file for fafsa the money that is going to be used for a down payment on a house will still be in the account. My mom says that if we were paying rent we wouldn't have much money saved so she wants me to say she only has $4,000 in the bank. My family is the midst of a horrible family tragedy so I'm trying to tread lightly and I realize the added stress my mom is under. But I'm going to be filling this out in a few hours and I'm not comfortable with deliberately lying. I know that FAFSA randomly audits 30% of applicants along with anyone's info that doesn't look right. Lying now isn't worth the possible $20,000 penality, jail time, and expulsion. When I brought this up she told me I was being insensitive. I know it is a bad time to talk about college stuff with all that's going on but there won't be a good time anytime soon. Does anyone have any quick facts about fafsa to put my mom at ease about reporting correctly? Do you know how asset protection allowance will apply to us? If she doesn't give me the real number in her account should I do the math for the rent money she saved and possible money she may have put aside and put that instead?</p>
<p>Your mom may be worrying about nothing. </p>
<p>Is she a single mom? If so, then about $17k of savings won’t even count. Does she have more than that?</p>
<p>I hate to say it but I think you should wait to fill out the FAFSA for a few weeks, if possible, to give your mother time to put the downpayment on the house so that your reporting is accurate. </p>
<p>In other words, sorry, but if you can’t tell the truth, DON’T FILE EARLY 
Especially if the truth will be coming true very soon ;)</p>
<p>I also think if possible you should use the 2013 tax information she will receive in January via W2 reporting to have the most accurate and verifiable information available. I’d hate to see you loose what I suspect would be high need funding due to any inaccuracies or prospective fraudulent filings…</p>
<p>Is there a particular date-by at one of your favorite schools? I don’t mean wait til March, but you can usually wait for your docs at the end of January or the first few weeks of February and still file in time to get the most fed and state funding available. Some schools accept FAFSA even later…but they will warn that funding is first come first served. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean there’s much advantage to filing Jan. 1 over say, Feb. 1.</p>
<p>We should be moving as early as January or February</p>
<p>So, are you saying that you’re already in the buying process? is your mom just waiting for loan approval?</p>
<p>Anyway…how much is your mom putting as a down payment? Does she have more than about $17k saved to put down on the house?</p>
<p>Yep…you need to use 2013 tax info. They will pull the info from the IRS to verify that it’s 2013 taxes. If it helps any, I’m a single mom and made about $40k for the tax year 2012. My EFC was around $3500 and I predict it will be around the same when my son does his FAFSA tomorrow.</p>
<p>My mom is divorced. She most likely has a little over 17k but less than 30k. How much does she have to pay after she passes the 17k threshold? I saw somewhere 5.6% I believe. I called the fafsa hotline and they reinforced the importance of correct reporting. Most of my “dream schools” deadlines are in March. If there isn’t a significant difference between filing Jan 1st and Feb. 1st I’ll see if my mom will let me apply in February. The hotline said that despite her new job her 2012 tax returns will suffice for this year’s fafsa. If she saved all of the rent money she has at least 15,000 saved but with her new job I’m not sure how much more she added to the account. She told me not to include my dad’s child support for fafsa because she doesn’t report it on her taxes. Is this good advice? My dad has agreed that that money can help pay for my college even though I’m turning 18. I believe it’ll be 4,800 yearly.</p>
<p>“So, are you saying that you’re already in the buying process? is your mom just waiting for loan approval?”</p>
<p>Yes we are in the buying process and waiting for loan approval.</p>
<p>If I apply on the first of Jan. do I have to use 2013 taxes?</p>
<p>Child support needs to go as untaxed income on fafsa. You could definitely wait until the end of January or beginning of February. You could also explain the situation to the school if the savings bumps up EFC. You are effectively about to be homeless so just tell the truth.</p>
<p>The school is also required to pull a certain number of applications for “verification” so yeah, there’s that…</p>
<p>Yes, you have to use 2013 taxes. Read the instructions. </p>
<p>Your mother is not asking you to be deceitful (i before e except after c) she is asking you to commit fraud on a Federal form. Don’t do it.</p>
<p>And if you get chosen for verification you will have to send in bank acct statements as of the day you file. They have to exactly match what you put on the FAFSA form for account balances. And forget about leaving out an account. Any account left out will be caught by your mothers social security number. </p>
<p>When you file you probably won’t have the 2013 taxes done. You file with estimates for the income and tax numbers and the exact numbers for bank account balances and put status as "Will File). When the taxes for 2013 are filed you then go into FAFSA and update the tax numbers only (not the account balances) to match the tax form and change status to “Filed”. Only then will the form be complete.</p>
<p>If the money will be spent, I’d file Feb 1 or whenever the home purchase happens.</p>
<p>You can file with estimated income numbers (but you do have to report exact savings, etc as of the file date). Eventually you will have to correct the income info with 2013 actual numbers as reported on her taxes - there will be an electronic link on FAFSA to pull the numbers right from her filed return.</p>
<p>Child support DOES count.</p>
<p>She finally agreed to give me the number 
She is a pretty mad at me and said that I’m going to mess up my fafsa by putting the correct amount . She also said that when I mess up my EFC she isn’t going to make up the difference. I told her this wasn’t fair because there is no way of knowing what my EFC would have been if I was audited/put the wrong amount but she wouldn’t listen. I told her that we are going to have to estimate her income for this year instead of using 2012 taxes. She then told me she was going to low ball and say it is under 50k so her assets won’t be counted against me. I don’t want to do this but without having her 2013 taxes in front of me I may not have a choice. My mom is making me still fill out fafsa tomorrow instead of in Feb. If she puts a low number for her income estimate will it matter if I’m going to change the number later on anyway? </p>
<p>I believe her income may be around 60k. In the account there is 24k. Does anyone know how this will affect my fafsa? I intend on alerting each college once I get my FA offer about the purchase of our home. My mom said that we may not be able to put the down payment for the house until March. This is obviously too late for me to fill out my fafsa.</p>
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<p>Actually there is a way. Run it with her income and with and without the downpayment money here: <a href=“https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm?execution=e1s1[/url]”>https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm?execution=e1s1</a> or here: [Expected</a> Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/efc/]Expected”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/efc/) or here: <a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/quickefc.phtml[/url]”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/quickefc.phtml</a></p>
<p>From that last link, with 60K income and 0 assets, it’s the same EFC as $60K income and $24K assets. So report the truth.</p>
<p>As for her income, saying it’s lower now than it really is for 2013 won’t help you at all. It will only mean your estimated FA package will be wrong. They aren’t going to base your award on her estimated income, they will base it on her actual income as reported on her taxes. So if it’s about $60K, say so.</p>
<p>If your mother only had one job in 2013, you can get a pretty good idea of her income from her last paystub.</p>
<p>Here is the link for the 2014-2015 formula. Print it out, and work through it on paper with your mom:</p>
<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091913EFCFormulaGuide1415.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091913EFCFormulaGuide1415.pdf</a></p>
<p>If you get stuck, come back here with your questions. Someone can probably talk you through it.</p>
<p>DO NOT FILE THE FAFSA 01.01.14. Wait a couple of days so that you can get the paperwork together. </p>
<p>Truly, filing it in early February will be good enough unless you are applying anywhere that specifically requires that you give them the numbers in January.</p>
<p>Mom can lowball her income all she wants. Your actual aid will be based on her actual 2013 income tax returns as submitted to the IRS. The schools will provide a preliminary FA award based on estimates, but no aid will actually be disbursed to you until FAFSA has been updated with final numbers from a filed tax return.</p>
<p>The asset protection is based on the age of your Mom. The older she is, the more protection she has. Unfortunately, the allowance is much lower for a singe parent than for a couple. The formula someone linked will give the actual amounts. Up to 5.6% of the excess assets can go to the EFC. So if say $10,000 is over the protected allowance, the effect on the EFC would be 560.</p>
<p>If your Mom’s income was in the $60k range for 2013, your EFC will likely be too high for federal grant aid such as the pell (even without the assets).</p>
<p>Make your mother read these posts. Your FAFSA WILL be compared to her tax records and it WILL show up that she lied.</p>
<p>You can be expelled from the college and denied ALL financial aid. You and she could both go to prison for committing a felony (fraud).</p>
<p>I’m not sure the mom would go to prison! But getting financial by using inaccurate information is considered fraud. The student runs the risk of losing their financial aid altogether, Having to repay any aid actually disbursed, and could lose their offer of admission as well. i believe,there could be,a fine as well.</p>
<p>The FAFSA is YOUR (the student’s) form. You use your PIN to sign that the information is accurate. If it isn’t accurate, don’t sign.</p>
<p>Yep what swimcatsmom said. She can try to lowball all she wants but the final numbers are pulled from an actual filed tax return and yes she has to count the child support. It’s not worth it.</p>