In response the separated parents questions and filling out the CSS. What if we have been separated and all financials have been separate for almost 2 years but we our 2022 tax docs were married filing jointly? I am SO struggling with how to fill the profile out b/c it does not reflect our finances at all
BTW I am the non custodial parent in this situation so he has already submitted the custodial and out childs with our tax info
You have to separate out the components of your income from the 2022 return. Investment balances and such will be as of the day you file CSS, so that should not be a problem. Is there anything else complicating the 2022 tax return, like a business or owned property?
Do you know what your ex did in terms of splitting out his piece of the 2022 return when filling out his CSS Profile?
When the custodial parent filed the profile…that parent was supposed to include only their portion of the income and assets even though your taxes were filed jointly.
Then as non-custodial parent, you do your income and assets (including a spouse if you have one).
I think you need to ask what was done.
Related question to @kelsmom what will these separated parents who are filing FAFSA do regarding their tax return? The non-custodial parent info isn’t required…but it will be on the return if downloaded via the IRS DRT.
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The tax information must be transferred from the IRS. The W-2 forms must be submitted, and they will allow the financial aid officer to adjust income to reflect just the custodial parent m’s income. Because this is an unusual situation, the student needs to contact the school to let them know - and ask them how they want the W-2 information submitted.
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Unusual? There are thousands and thousands of college kids who will be completing a fafsa from divorced parent families.
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separated but filing jointly is what’s unusual.
I may be wrong, but I don’t know a lot of families who are separated that do taxes jointly. It would greatly screw up FAFSA because it pulls information directly from taxes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an option for “separated, filed jointly” when filling in the FAFSA.
Because it’s a two year look back now, some families will have filed jointly during the base year & will have subsequently become separated or divorced. It not a typical situation, so there has to be some manual adjustment involved. I have had to separate out income for divorced and separated families over the years even without the mandatory tax transfer. If I had to review the return for any reason, I had to verify the information that the parent provided, which involved using the tax return & W-2s.
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He put everything line for line just as they asked on his part. As .where it said what did “parents” file on their 1040 for example i 2022 on line 1z he put the same amount I put. So far it looks like we separated our retirements obvi but apparently he has assets which is whatever. Then when it says our names specifically that’s when the people at the call center said to fill out my own info which i have also been doing in places such as w-2. The verbage is weird b/c my whole application say “student name” Parents as but never parent as if I am married.
I am curious as to why my non custodial is still asking who else is in my household? Yes we have 50/50custody but for this purpose we said one parent had more over the other do to financial. Was I not supposed to put my childs name on starting up page? Mine instead? I was assured I did it right. Lol
Thank you
In response to WHY this happened. It is personal, but fighting about a house or better said, selling a house your kids grew up in b/c we cant afford to buy each other out at the has delayed us. I can’t afford a lawyer and kids have gone through enough.
Thank you
Call the College Board and ask…
From the College Board/CSS “Contact Us” - 844-202-0524.
You need to manually mock up a 2022 tax return to get the information needed for reporting - based on “as if” it was just you. You’ll need to use married filing separately, and you have to determine who would report dependents (if you have two kids, you could use yourself & one kid). Then you have to do the earned income split based on your actual income. So income is based on your W-2 income only, if there is business income, report it only if your name is on the schedule (or split the income if both of you own the business), split any dividends or interest from joint holdings (report in full any in your name only), use the appropriate deduction (or split in half if you itemized), determine the tax you would have owed.