Last year I lived with my husband for 3 months out of the year, he was also caring for my children for more than six months last year while I was gone. I was homeless during this time, I did not live in any shelters but stayed between friends and acquaintance homes for the remainder of the year and I did not work at all. I was also hospitalized on 3 separate occasions totaling about 2.5 months. I am battling mental illness (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and I have been working hard to get my life back on track. I am now back at my husbands house and working full time as well as succeeding in therapy. We need to get degrees because we are pretty poor even with us both working and we have two kids to support. He has a much better job than I and it is a required 48 hours per week, so it makes most sense that I finish college first then he can do the same once I have a job that makes more than minimum wage. So heres what happened in regards to financial aid.
I applied more than two months ago and was accepted to my school of choice right away my FAFSA was already filled out when I was accepted. So, because my husband took care of my kids last year for more than 6 months he was (for tax purposes) considered unmarried and he filed as (head of household). He is an immigrant with resident alien status and received a tax return, nothing wrong with his taxes. Financial aid starting asking for written statements and Homeland Security papers etc. to verify all of this. it is now 7 business days to the start of the semester and I will need to apply for private loans for cost of living expenses so that we can afford to put me through college.
The thing is - I haven’t received an award yet! Now the financial aid office wants a written statement from the IRS that my Husband was allowed to file as "head of Household"MIND YOU, I have already ordered and submitted tax return transcripts from the IRS that shows everything he put on his taxes. Shouldn’t this be proof enough? It shows he successfully completed his taxes.
Anyways it is IMPOSSIBLE to get the IRS on the phone and even when I call my “local office” it repeats a recording and then hangs up on you. The recording says I can go into the office without an appointment but my husband works 6 days a week and just got this great new job he can’t go there before they are closed and I don’t drive so I can’t get there on my own even if I could I am not him and they will need him to be there in order to get information about his taxes (i assume) especially since he is an immigrant and everything is just that much harder. I am at the end of my rope. I feel like the world is working against me going to college this year. Can the financial aid office really require a written statement from the IRS? when all the information you need to file taxes is public we did it ourselves why can’t these people do an online search and see that he qualified to file as head of household? WTF
@kelsmom can you chime in here? I’m wondering if the “head of household” filing was wrong because the couple was married, but living separately. I think he either should have filed “married filing separately” or “married, filing jointly” because they were both living in the US.
It sounds like they think that he could file that way because she was living elsewhere. I think he could only file that way if she was living in another country…but correct me if I’m wrong.
I am aware of the tax rule and it is not incorrect. A married person can file as Head of Household if the following rules apply to them - a) for tax purposes he is considered unmarried - in order to be considered unmarried the person must have been providing more than half of the support for dependants AND the spouse can not have lived with them for over 6 months ending in the last day of the year. b) he must be the one supporting the household in which he lived during that six month period of time.
You can be considered unmarried if a spouse did not live in the home during the last 6 months of the year and the home was the main home of a child, stepchild, or foster child for more than half the year. So if OP wasn’t living with the husband during the last 6 months of the year and he was taking care of the kids, I don’t see anything wrong with the filing status.
The filing status would be as of 12/31, were they living together or apart; if you marry on 12/31, you are considered married for the entire year. HOH does require that he had provided support for the children for more than half the year unless they were born during that year, but married or separated, he provided the support.
" A person filing for head of household is unmarried or considered unmarried at the end of the year, and paid more than half the cost of maintaining a home for the year, and has one or more qualifying persons who reside with the taxpayer for more than half the year.
Unmarried Test
To qualify for head of household status, a person must be unmarried or considered as if they were unmarried for the year.
Normally, a taxpayer must be unmarried on the last day of the year in order to file as head of household. Unmarried means a person is not married because he or she is single, divorced, or legally separated under a separate maintenance decree. As general rule, state law determines whether a person is married or not married. "
@ewkshy222 You are right that budget cuts have made the “letter from the IRS” impractical if not impossible.
It is indeed appropriate to file HoH if you are unmarried or “considered unmarried” if you meet the other requirements. You are considered unmarried for these purposes if your spouse has not lived there for at least 6 months and it is not temporary. This means both of you file separate returns. If less than 6 months, you each file married filing sep.
Getting a letter tho…which is your main problem…an idea…there is no requirement to file HoH in your Hs case. You could call the break temporary, which with benefit of hindsight it was, and amend your return to married, including both of your incomes. The rates for married are less than for HoH. So unless your H was getting some other benefits form that filing status, I would consider amending returns, changing status and updating the fafsa. Since less tax may be due, you might even get a refund?
This may be done very quickly, in time for school. Sometimes it is easier to be done than to prove you are right.
It is a 4 year school Southern New Hampshire University. It will cost roughly 25,000/year to attend and I need as much financial aid as possibly - we are family that has had to receive food stamps in the past, we have needed to apply for emergency rental assistance from the town recently and when I graduate I expect to be making about 40,000/year this is double what I am making now but still a modest income so I can only practically afford roughly $300-400/month in student loans after I graduate. I will need to take out private loans to cover some rent costs while I am in school because I won’t be able to attend full-time and still work 40 hours a week and my husband can’t pay the rent by himself (something we found out the hard way last year). My EFC was only $7,000 I don’t really understand why but I have nothing to compare it to so I guess that is just how the Financial aid works.
It really stinks that Financial Aid just goes off of income because we pay thousands a year in child care costs and are over $50,000 in debt. When we apply for rental assistance in our town we qualify for ALOT because they take into account your bank activity and they see 90% leave as soon as we get it. If I can’t get financial aid I don’t know how I will be able to go to school, I fear I may need to put it off another year. I am going to look into changing my husbands HoH status but I doubt that will be possible as the refund has already been issued. I am 25 years old btw.
You can’t afford to borrow $25k per year. Just can’t afford it. Are there any community colleges you can go to for 2 years? they should be cheaper than $25k.
The only community college that is worth going to around here is in Massachusetts (Middlesex CC) and it will cost only a few thousand less than SNHU. SNHU is truly a very affordable option compared to the education you get for this area. The other community college (Nashua CC) has a poor academic program in comparison and I have had many friends graduate their programs and remain unemployed for over a year or taking a job that they could have gotten without any credentials from a college.
You need a sit down with a financial aid officer at this college ASAP. Unless you can get need based aid (not loans) you cannot afford this school. If you are already carrying 50K in debt and are in a minimum wage job, your college loans are going to put you and your family at significant risk…
Big hug to you. You are dealing with a lot at age 25, but you need to take a step back and realize that your plan to go to college needs some modification if you are dealing with loans of this magnitude. Twoin makes a good suggestion… any community colleges nearby? And might they have subsidized childcare as well???
Also, the major I am trying to get is not offered by any Community Colleges that I have found - Industrial Organizational Psychology. I want to land my first job working for the Training and Development Department of the McDonalds Corporation because I have been worked for McDonalds for two years before last year happened and I came back this year and am in great standing with the company- everyone sees me progressing further into their corporate entity and I have been begged to become a manager there. Their benefits are awesome in the corporate profile and they will help to fund more than half of my eduction if I choose to go back to Grad School which is definitely a priority for me in this field. I just wish I could get a break.
I guess I am going to have to take another look at Community Colleges and try to find another way to attend college, all I know is if I don’t get a good college education I am never going to have a better lifestyle for my kids or myself. I will put off this Summer Semester and revisit my options. This is really disappointing its really one of the only things I have to look forward to. I am sitting here in tears because I want this so badly and it feels impossible.
You can still go to SNHU, but you could take a lot of the required core classes at the CC, even if it is not a highly ranked school. Even if you went only one year, that could save you a lot. It is great that McD’s will help with grad school, but you are not there yet and you don’t want to get there with another $100k in debt. Go talk to the school and see what they can do. At this point you’ll end up with $9500 in Stafford loans, but need to borrow $15000 in private loans every year, and the interest on those will add up quickly.
You feel like you are not getting a break, but no one gets that type of money. Even if you get the taxes straightened out, it will not change things for you and you still need to borrow too much.
Talk to SNHU and find out which courses you can take at CC that will transfer, then get to the CC and see what kind of aid they have. You may have to wait until January to start. That’s okay. Don’t stress about it.
You don’t have to select THAT major for your first two years of college. You can be a psych major at a CC for two years, and then transfer to a four year for that more specialized degree.
You can’t compare what happened to friends who went to a CC ONLY for 2 years and then were unemployed. You plan on getting a 4 year degree, so you’ll be getting a job based on where you get your bachelors from…not your AA.
Nashua CC is fully accredited, so your credits will transfer to a university when you’re ready. It looks like the cost is $200 per credit. SNHU is at least $320 a credit, so it’s not just a little bit more since a full year is 30 credits…which is $3600 more. That’s a lot when you don’t have that to spend.
I don’t believe that going to a CC is just little less than that college. Besides, even if it were, you don’t have the extra few thousand to spend.
Where will be able to qualify for $15k per year in private loans given you have $50k in consumer debt?
Do you know it would take 40 years at $650 per month and 4.2% interest rate to pay off $50k consumer debt and $100k student loans? And that is an unrealistically low rate and double the monthly amount you said you want to pay off per month.
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when I graduate I expect to be making about 40,000/year
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Keep in mind that you don’t want to have a big loan obligation at that point. Your H will be going to school, so likely his income will drop and your children will be costing you more and more.
If you were to borrow about $7500 per year, you’d have about $30k in debt when you graduate (if you graduate in four years…which may prove difficult if you’re working and have a family) …then your loan payment will be about $300 a month…about the amount of an extra car payment for TEN LONG YEARS.
If you work part-time at McDonald’s would you qualify for tuition reimbursement NOW, not for grad school? Worth an email to your HR rep to find out. You could take two classes which they’d help pay for, while keeping up your relationships there. If the policy is that won’t pay the tuition but would pay you back for every class where you got a B or better (the policy in several companies where I’ve worked) THAT would be worth taking out loans for, knowing that you’re getting the cash in 6 months and only incurring a half year’s worth of interest.