<p>Hello,
My mother made $31,585 in 2010. I know this is over the threshold for an automatic 0. She also has two dependents, who are not her children. Specifically, they are her niece and the niece’s son. I was just wondering how the dependents would change anything?</p>
<p>Bump…</p>
<p>I don’t think that having extra dependents has any bearing on qualifying for auto 0 EFC. There is a question on the FAFSA where it asks how many exemptions the parents claimed on their taxes, so if they can claim exemptions for the niece and her son, that will show up on the FAFSA, but I’m not sure if they’ll count as family members as far as the income protection computation on the FAFSA goes.</p>
<p>Just because the formula used isn’t auto 0 doesn’t mean that the EFC won’t be 0. It’s still possible at that income level.</p>
<p>Are the dependents tax write-off dependents, or is your mom actually supporting them at least 50%? That’s an important distinction. The former won’t allow her to say they are dependents for financial aid purposes; the latter will.</p>