<p>I'm a noncustodial parent. So far i've submitted a NCP profile to college board and mailed my w2 and tax return to IDOC. Both are done in response to emails forwarded by my ex and my daughter (the applicant). </p>
<p>My first question is , is there anything else I need to do to help my daughter's application? For example, my ex-wife has filled out a FAFSA; do i need to do one as well? Or should I find out if the schools have additional requirements I don't know of? Or </p>
<p>Second question is on the NCP profile: i included the house my ex-wife and my daughters currently live in, because it is still j ointly owned by ex and I. But now I think that was a mistake. I'm sure my ex-wife included this house in her profile or fafsa. I'm concerned that my inclusion in my NCP of the same house may be misinterpreted to mean that i own another house, which i don't. Do I need to submit a corrected NCP? I'd need to send each school a paper copy with corrections.</p>
<p>I would say no because that would be double-counting it. I think Profile asks for the actual house value and the amount of any mortgage, then calculates the net value for you. If your ex-wife has entered the total value of the house and the mortgage amount, then you would not have to include it on the non-custodial form. If your ex-wife has included only her half of the house value along with her mortgage obligation, if any, then you’d need to include your half. As thumper wrote above, you need to get that information from your ex-wife.</p>
<p>For FAFSA-only schools, you don’t need to do anything else to help your daughter’s application.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses. turns out she reported the whole house. so my reporting the house on my ncp is definitely double counting & needs to be corrected. Now, i think we should each report half - her reporting the whole house inflates her assets and it works against us all, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>I’m not sure it will make a huge difference. Two halves equal a whole. PLUS your former wife reporting it…it’s her primary residence. It’s NOT your primary residence. I don’t know what the Profile does for NCP secondary residences (like you are saying).</p>
<p>I would guess that since your former wife is living in the house, she should report it as her primary residence and report the whole thing. If YOU (the dad) are paying for the mortgage or something of that kind, wouldn’t this have to be listed under “money paid on your behalf by others” on the FAFSA AND the Profile? </p>
<p>But yes…you do need to contact the schools and ask them how to amend your Profile to reflect that the house your wife reported is the same house YOU reported on your NCP form. The schools will tell you how to make that change.</p>
<p>If each “household” is given some kind of “asset protection” then it might be a good idea to “split equity”…so that each of you is given that asset protection.</p>
<p>for instance…if the equity in the home is - say - $150k - and your ex is claiming all of it, and her household is only given - say - $50k in asset protection - then the school may think that $100k should be considered. However, if each of you is claiming $75k in equity - and each household is given $50k in asset protection, then each household would only have $25k ($50k total) that would be considered.</p>
<p>The house goes under assets in the NCP - it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s primary or secondary residence. The reason i think we should report half of equity each is truthful - we do jointly own this house - and it shows my ex with less assets, which should help if the school only looks at fafsa. Of course it would wash with schools that look at both financials. </p>
<p>I’m new at this…is there really such concept of “asset protection”? would be wonderful but somehow i doubt it exists.</p>
<p>*The reason i think we should report half of equity each is truthful - we do jointly own this house - and it shows my ex with less assets, which should help if the school only looks at fafsa. Of course it would wash with schools that look at both financials. </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Schools that only use FAFSA do NOT look at home equity for primary residences. So, not a problem there.</p>
<p>However, I do not think it’s just a wash at schools that look at both incomes. Each household is likely given some asset protection. If one household seems to have “too much” in assets, then that will push up “family contribution”. Unless you have a lot of other unprotected assets that you’re counting, then you each need to claim your own half of the equity.</p>
<p>That is true…but for the NCP this is NOT their primary residence. The value of this would be included with all the other assets on the Profile. Remember too that the asset protection is formula based and the same for ALL schools using the FAFSA. This is not the case with the schools using the Profile.</p>
<p>Talked to someone at the College Board. Regarding the house, she said that each of us should report our respective portion of the asset value and debt. Of course this is relevant for the two CSS profiles only; in FAFAS, the house is not reported at all. </p>
<p>thanks again for all the helpful responses.</p>