<p>OK, so I have been having trouble filling out my fafsa information because instead of my mother filing me as a dependent my sister does. My mother files her own taxes but does not claim me as a dependent and my dad has an unknown status. How will this all work out? </p>
<p>Is your sister your guardian or is she just supplying living expenses for you? Who do you live with? What does ‘has an unknown status’ mean?</p>
<p>Um…how is it that your sister is declaring you as a dependent?</p>
<p>If your sister is your legal guardian (court papers and all), you would be independent for financial aid purposes,</p>
<p>If your sister is declaring you because she provides the bulk of your support, then you would still use your MOM as the custodial parent on the FAFSA. Tax filing status doesn’t matter. You would out your mom, and her income and assets on the forms.</p>
<p>As Thumper says, unless your mother and father are court ordered out of your life, not just turned you over to someone to be your legal guardian, for FAFSA purposes, the parent you lived with the most in the 12 months before filing FAFSA is your custodial parent. if you lived with neither, and neither provided you support, I believe it’s the one with the most income that would be the one. The rules are pretty clear about this.</p>
<p>If your mother signed you over to your sister so that you could live with her for any number of reasons–the usual one is so that you could attend school close to where she lives, or because it’s decided overall that it’s better for you to live with her, that still does not take her off the custodial parent status for FAFSA. Tax status is not relevant for FAFSA. It happens a lot that the custodial parent for FAFSA purposed does not declare the student as the tax dependent. In many divorce situations, a parent will each claim a kid or the papers will stipulate who gets the dependent exemption, but the kid actually lives more with the other parent. It’s the parent with whom the kid lives with the most that is custodial. If both parents are out of the picture due to the state stepping in for cause and removing the parents (or parent), then you are an independent student. But voluntary assignment of someone else like your sister to be a guardian does not take your mother out of custodial parent status for FAFSA. </p>
<p>If you have no idea where your father is and he’s not been in your life at all for a while–if that’s what “unknown status is”, then he is not your custodial parent. </p>
<p>So you are NOT in an odd FAFSA situation. I see it a lot here. My son’s best friend lived with his aunt and she did declare him as an dependent for tax purposes and was his legal guardian for most thing while he was living with her and under 18, but when it came to FAFSA, his parents were the ones on the hook for that. </p>