So overall how is the Princeton NPC in terms of accuracy?
- Dependency tax claim *may* help you figure out which parent contributed more money for the child's benefit (which only comes into play if the nights are exactly equal), but in and of itself it means nothing. It is not unusual to find divorce agreements that allow parent A to claim tax dependency for child 1, even though child 1 spends all his actual time with parent B.
- Just use a calendar to keep track of where the nights are spent. Then it will be exact. And it won't be hard.
- See my #2 above for tracking the extra nights. You seem to want to make this harder than it needs to be.
- If you're claiming the federal EIC, you're probably right: for a very generous school like Princeton, there's likely not much that a low-income, low asset family can do to increase the financial aid to any great degree. You're probably maxing it out either way.
@BelknapPoint Thank you. For this calendar year since we haven’t kept track thru June of course it would be a guess but starting in January it could be precise going forward. Truly nothing I considered before. Just an FYI it is low income(full tuition) but what I consider high assets. Even so entering the numbers comes to full tuition and 28% R&B from what I can tell. Can you tell me how they determine the value of the prepaid college fund to enter a correct amount?
also if you know what year tax return would they request for a fall 2019 entrant?
Can you and the other parent agree to decide things in a way that makes it most advantageous to the student? If it is better for financial aid for you to claim the student lives more with you, for you to take the tax deduction, for you to claim the household of 3 (and that’s okay even if the other parent claims the younger student on her taxes), do that. The FAFSA people are fine with it as long as it is consistent. Usually there is only a problem (like on taxes) where both claim the student, both try to claim the exemptions, both try to fill out the NCP forms.
If it works out for you to be the primary, can you agree to that? The parent who claims the child is eligible for the AOTC. Will you qualify for that? If not, would the other parent? Work it out.
Yes she would be willing to agree to do whatever works better. Right now I have claimed the oldest(Princeton) since the divorce and going forward while she has claimed the younger son.
@twoinanddone Just as a side note I have entered the numbers on the Princeton NPC with me being the custodial parent and the ex being non and the numbers are identical when I enter the ex as custodial and myself as non.
The 2019-2020 academic year will use 2017 tax returns. Let’s assume that for a student starting college in the fall of 2019, you complete the financial aid forms in October 2018 (earliest possible). You will want to keep track of where the student spent his/her nights for the previous 365 nights, so that period commences in October this year. You haven’t missed anything.
As long as what you claim reflects the real world (no making things up), you should not have any issue with completing the forms honestly and correctly.
^one of the requirements for the EIC seems to be that the child live with you more than half the year.
How does your ex-wife claim an exemption for one child, but you claim EIC for two children?
One possible answer: for claiming a dependency exemption on the tax return, it does not matter if the child lives more with the tax filer or not.
https://www.eitc.irs.gov/Tax-Preparer-Toolkit/faqs/divorced
I found an answer to my question. It appears the custodial parent can allow the noncustodial parent to claim the dependency exemption for a child, but only the custodial parent can claim child tax credit and EIC, because of the “living with more than half of the year” rule.
So that would also make you the custodial parent for FAFSA, because they spend more nights with you per year.
@BelknapPoint No nothing to make up it is what it is. The only honest answer I couldn’t give was who had the children more but as you have pointed out going forward I will make it a priority to keep track. 2017 so this years tax return. As I posted earlier it doesn’t “appear” to make any difference when I enter either parent as custodial on the NPC for Princeton so hopefully it’s an accurate(within reason) number.
@mommdc Lol thanks for that…was going to call my accountant in the am to get the answer but saved me a call 
^sorry, only the custodial parent can claim the dependent care credit, and EIC. But noncustodial parent may be able to claim dependency exemption, child credit.
Your prospective Princeton student is just finishing sophomore year of high school. A lot can happen between now and completing college applications and financial aid forms. Certainly go ahead and mess around with various NPCs now to see how they work and what’s required, but I wouldn’t rely on any number they spit out until you get closer to application time.
@BelknapPoint Understood thanks. When you say a lot can happen do you mean financially or? Also do you have an idea of how to or do they calculate a pre paid college fund on their NPC?
Colleges can change their financial aid policies for institutional funds whenever they want. The NPCs you are seeing now are set up for the 2017-2018 academic year, at best (lots of schools fail to update their website when needed). And yes, your family financial situation can and probably will change, at least to some degree, before you are ready to do this for real.
This will vary depending on the school. You will need to contact each school to get an authoritative answer to this question, if the information is not available on the school’s financial aid web pages.
@BelknapPoint Thank you very much you’ve been more than helpful.
You are very welcome. There are lots of folks here who have plenty of real word experience and are willing to share, so stick around. And good luck to your student!