My situation is kinda weird.
My parents were never married and I lived with my mom my whole life. But she recently got married and moved in with her husband so it is just me, my grandma, my sister, and my niece living together. My sister is married (her husband is in the military) so her claims her and my niece.
My mom no longer claims me, on the 2017 taxes, my grandma did. However, on the FAFSA, it says I can not put my grandma information because she is not my legal guardian so it says to put my mom. But if they are checking her taxes, they would see she doesn’t claim me.
So now I am confused about whose information I put, my moms or my grandmas. My mom has no idea either.
Does your grandmother have formal, court-ordered legal guardianship of you? If so, you are independent for the FAFSA.
Did your grandmother legally adopt you? If so, she is your legal mother and your parent for the FAFSA.
Does your father pay anything at all for you? Have you spent any time with him in the past year? Since you don’t live with either parent right now, the parent you have spent the most time with or the parent who has provided the most toward your support is the one who files the FAFSA.
It looks like you are dependent on your mom for FAFSA. It doesn’t matter at all if you weren’t her dependent for tax purposes. That is a whole different thing.
Are you completing a FAFSA now? The 2019-2020 form?
If so, you use 2017 tax return information. BUT…your mom is now married, right? That being the case, the FAFSA needs to include both your mom and her husband income from 2017, and both of their assets as if the date of filing your FAFSA form.
It doesn’t matter that they were not married in 2017…if they are married as if the date of your filing.
SO…you will need the 2017 tax return for your mom’s spouse so you can get his income, taxes paid etc off of that form…and you will need your mom’s as well.
Your mom is still your legal guardian…so…you have to use her information…and since she is remarried…you need to also include her spouse.
The tax filing status of all these people doesn’t matter.
You will likely need a tax transcript from 2017 for both your mom and her husband.