FAFSA Corrects - taking out deceased parent's income

Paying for College FAFSA & CSS Profile
1

So I filled out the 2024-2025 FAFSA with my 2022 taxes. I was married filing jointly in 2022, but my husband died in January 2023. I filled out the FAFSA with my 2022 taxes, which included my husband’s income. Now I need to go back and correct it to take out his income.

I’m stuck on some parts where I have to put my “income tax paid”. How do I figure this out on only my income? Do I have to go back and do my taxes over again in Turbotax to figure it out?

I’d appreciate some advice so I can correct my daughter’s FAFSA and hopefully get financial aid packages based on the correct income.

Thank you!

2

I’m sorry for your loss.

Tagging @kelsmom, our resident FA expert.

3

My condolences, @kinVT. For taxes paid, you do need to determine what portion of the taxes paid are attributed to your income. The easiest way would be to pop your information into TurboTax 2022. Use head of household, assuming that’s what you file as now. You can do it as a “new” return and save it separately from the original return.

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4

Thank you! I did that and pretended I was going to amend my 2022 taxes. I deleted my husband’s income W2s and now my taxable income has dropped to 0, so I will just update my “Income Tax Paid” to $0.

Does that sound right? Then I canceled the amendment.

Will this be flagged for some reason on FAFSA? Because I don’t see anywhere where I can write down why I had to make changes.

5

I left my filing status as Married Filing Jointly. Is that ok? I read that that was the way to go for 2022 since he was alive that whole year. I can also use that in 2023 since he was alive for some of that year, and since I have a qualifying child I am allowed to file as a qualifying widower for the next 2 years (2024 and 2025).

6

I don’t see any specific guidance on this yet for 2024-25. However, there is this guidance:
3) Death of a parent
Parental income and assets in the case of the death of any parent is determined as follows:
(A) If either of the parents has died, the surviving parent shall be considered a single parent, until that parent has remarried.

In past years, the tax would be determined as if the parent was single, according to the information on this link (bottom of page 7 of the pdf, beginning at “Using a joint return to figure individual AGI and taxes paid“): https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2023-2024/2023-2024_Federal_Student_Aid_Handbook/_knowledge-center_fsa-handbook_2023-2024_application-and-verification-guide_ch4-verification-updates-and-corrections.pdf.

You might be selected for verification after submitting your update, but that’s okay. The school(s) will request your tax return and W2’s for you & your husband for 2022 & you will probably have to fill out a form of some sort. If you are not selected for verification, you won’t need to submit anything. If your income was 0, taxes paid are most likely 0 no matter which filing status you report, anyway.