I realized that I have been making the same mistake on my FAFSA applications for the past 3 years.

[BelknapPoint]

DiscountQueen that is not entirely true. If this student put HER money in her mom’s bank account…the money would still belong to the STUDENT…not the mom (unless the student was giving with no strings attached this money to her mom). If money belongs to the student, it doesn’t matter where it is…it still belongs to the student.

This is correct.

However, both our names and social security numbers are listed on that account.

A bank account can be held under two names, but the earnings are only reported under one SSN.

Nope. I stopped depositing my money to that account after I opened up my own account with a different bank. However, I still continued to use money on that account whenever my mom wanted me to buy groceries for her or something. That account is under my mom’s name and mine. So how is the department of education supposed to tell if that is my money or my moms? What if they think it was my money and go after me for failing to declare it on my FAFSA application.

If you deposited your money in that account, than it remains your money and needs to be reported on FAFSA as your asset, unless you made a legitimate gift of that money to your mother.