Urgent Financial Aid Question, Help Please!

Paying for College
1

<p>At the moment I'm beginning to fill out the CSS Profile and I've always had the same question for all financial aid applications (CSS, FAFSA, etc).</p>

<p>I've always lived with my mother, never had contact with my father and he isn't on the birth certificate. My mother is a housekeeper, gets paid in cash (no paystubs), and doesn't pay taxes. My mother is able to get a job letter. I have a job that I receive paystubs and I work during school vacations. I have not filed a tax return yet because I just started in April 2011. </p>

<p>How am i supposed to fill this into a financial aid application? Do I even have to put the little income that I have? PLEASE HELP!!!! Thank you!</p>

2

<p>You need to list all income for both your mother and yourself whether she files taxes or not.</p>

3

<p>As kela says, you need to report both your and your Mother’s income. </p>

<p>One problem you may run into is that if your Mom should be filing a return and does not, you will probably not be eligible for financial aid until she does file one. Even if she gets paid in cash, she should be filing a return. If she is “self employed” (ie runs the housekeeping job as a business - hence no paystubs) then she should be paying self employment taxes as well as federal/state taxes she owes (if any) based on her level of income.</p>