Hello, I am new to this forum, and new to financial aid discussion in general. I am looking to get advice whether or not my ex-spouse is pushing me to do something that would be considered fraudulent.
We divorced four years ago. His income is about three times more than mine, or more. The kids technically live at his house more than half of the year. I receive no child support, and he claims the kids as deductions on his tax return.
Lately he has been really pushing for me to give him my most recent tax return so he can “have an accountant run some numbers” he said. He said that when it comes to the kids’ college it would be best for me to claim the kids as dependents so that my income is used on financial aid forms instead of his.
This seems fishy because the kids are not my dependents. He claims all four of them on his tax return each year. He also pays for the bulk of their expenses, like clothing, activities fees, etc. Wouldn’t the custody agreement need to be modified in order for the kids to be my “dependents?” I don’t want to lie on a form just so the kids can get better financial aid. It’s not worth breaking the law for this.
If anyone has experience with this, or knows what I should do, any tips would be helpful.
For federal financial aid, there are two tests to determine which parent’s financial information is used on the form when the student’s parents are divorced. The first test is which parent the student has spent more time with during the 12 months immediately preceding submission of the form. If the amount of time is exactly equal during that 12 month period, the next test is used, and that is which parent has provided the greatest amount of financial support for the student during the 12 months.
If the child for whom the form is being completed spent more time with your ex-husband than with you in the 12 month period before the form is completed, than your husband’s financial information must be used on the form.
Financial aid forms have NOTHING to do with who claims dependents on taxes. NOTHING. Custody agreements mean NOTHING. He could have custody , but if the kids end up living more with you, then your info would be used.
The custodial parent’s income info MUST go on FAFSA. If the children live with their dad more days/nights than they live with you, then HE is the custodial parent.
On the other hand, if you want to use your information on the form and the number of days he has spent with each of you is close to even, your child could start staying with you until he’s spent more time with you than with his father, and then file when you’ve reached that date. If he’s spent 6 months with your husband and only 4 with you, he could stay with you for the next two months and then could use your information.
If you are low income, he may get more financial aid using your income and assets. If you are middle income, above $50k, it probably won’t help much for need based aid.
Thanks so much for the quick replies. Very, very helpful. It’s tricky because my ex, in no way, would ever allow the kids to be at my house more often. A lot of it has to do with his fear of me asking for child support if the kids are with me more. He had a lawyer who apparently warned him that me having the kids more would result in him having to pay me child support (which I have never asked for). It’s a long story and I don’t want to drag/bore people on this forum. But long story short, the kids spend more time over there (more overnights) and that will not change.
So I guess I will have to tell him that since he fought so hard for them to be at his house more often, this unfortunately (for him) means he will have to be the parent to provide the info on the forms.
He can’t have his cake and eat it too. You can tell him it’s either/or. Your son can live with you until you’ve had him more than 50% of the time, and then your info can go on Fafsa—or the living arrangements can remain as they are, but your ex’s info would go on Fafsa. Maybe he would like being in control of making that choice. (So his lawyer wasn’t so great after all if he wasn’t thinking ahead to this scenario.)
Also, as @ucbalumnus said, Fafsa requires the financial info only from the “custodial” parent (the parent whom the child lived with more than 50% of the time, regardless of your legal custody agreement). But if your child is applying to any of the schools that require the CSS in addition to Fafsa, both of your financial info will be counted.
If he’s applying to schools that require Fafsa only, there is not that much need-based aid to be had anyway. It’s the CSS schools that are the most generous with need-based aid.
Yup, the schools that provide the best aid pretty much all want the CSS profile and info from both parents (and any new spouses). So his requests won’t help at all.
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I guess I will have to tell him that since he fought so hard for them to be at his house more often, this unfortunately (for him) means he will have to be the parent to provide the info on the forms.
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Yup!
And, as others have mentioned, the schools that give the best aid want both parents’ info.
where is your child applying?
BTW…if your child is applying to FAFSA only schools, then EFC will probably mean little or nothing.
First of all, don’t give him access to your tax return, soc sec # etc!
For FAFSA like others said, your income information would go on the form, if the student lived with you more in the year before you file FAFSA.
But even if your income would mean a FAFSA EFC of $0, that would mean a Pell grant of around $5,000 and student loan of $5,500, that would hardly pay for college, unless they are commuting to a local college or CC.
I hope since he has not paid child support, that he is willing to help the kids with college at least, does the divorce decree say anything about that?
The kids should find out if he plans to contribute. Otherwise they will have to try and get enough merit to pay for school, along with student loan and summer work earnings. Or commute to an affordable local school.
Your ex might also miss out on the AOTC, an education tax credit of up to $2500, if his income is too high.
The ONLY way for you to be the custodial parent on the fafsa (and Profile) isfor your kid’s to live with you 51% of the time for the 365 days prior to filing the form.
Do NOT give anyone else your tax returns…or that information. Sorry…but that is not needed by anyone but YOU.
If you are the non-custodial parent, younwont be on the fafsa…at all. If the Non-custodial Profile is required, you will get a link to complete it.
I understand that this is complicated, and I applaud OP for wanting to avoid anything fraudulent. At the same time, I start from the point of view that BOTH parents want the same thing - to help maximize any potential financial aid and/or to reduce the net COA for whatever option(s) is/are best for the children.
If the child is considering a FAFSA only school, and there is still time to modify the custody arrangement, and if your income is low enough that the child’s EFC might be zero if he/she applied using your income, then it might be worth modifying the custody , even if that means the spouse must start paying you some child support.
Even though you are no longer married to each other, please remember that you both have the same common goal - to put the children’s needs first.
Your spouse doesn’t need your tax returns to do this, but please be open to providing some of the requested information - too often divorced parents bring so much animosity and guard to any discussion - not without reason - but they might sometimes forget their children are also the ones harmed.
^^ You don’t need to modify the custody order to meet the FAFSA definition for custodial parent. The child just has to spend more time with the parent who fills out the FAFSA. The other parent can still pay expenses, can still claim the child as a dependent on taxes, can still make medical and other decisions. The child has to SLEEP at the other parent’s home more, at least 183 nights in the 365 days before filing FAFSA.
If the parents can agree that the kid will start spending more time with mom so that mom can qualify as the custodial parent for FAFSA purposes, and if dad agrees to make a financial contribution to mom to offset her increased expenses if the kid starts spending more time with her, there is no reason to formally modify the custody agreement. Just agree what needs to be done and do it. Likewise, there is no reason for either parent to share financial information with the other parent. The FAFSA custodial parent completes the FAFSA using only his or her information.
I agree that the mom shouldn’t give her personal finance info to her Ex-H, but likely he already has her SSN. Don’t know many spouses who don’t know their spouse’s SSN
What @mom2collegekids said. I mean, seriously, they were married and probably filed joint returns. He would just have to look at an old one. And if you’ll be filing the CSS Profile, I don’t think there’s any way to preclude him from having access to the same information anyway.
The custodial parent cannot view the non-custodial parent profile.
Sure…the former spouse probably has the SS number. But that doesn’t mean he should also have a copy of the former spouses tax return, w-2 forms, or anything else current.