FAFSA With Divorced Parents: Maximizing Financial Aid Opportunities
Navigating the FAFSA with Divorced Parents: A Step-by-Step Guide
Table of Contents
What Described in FAFSA with Divorced Parents?
Parents Who Are Divorced or Separated: Only the custodial parent’s information will be included on the FAFSA if your parents are separated or divorced and do not cohabitate. The parent you spent the most time with during the previous 12 months or who gave you the most financial support is the custodial parent. Information on the non-custodial parent is not necessary.
Divorced or Separated but Living Together: You must provide information from both parents on the FAFSA if your parents are divorced or separated but still live together.
Parents Who Were Never Married: In the event of a divorce or separation, you will adhere to the same regulations if your parents were never married and did not reside together. The FAFSA will only be submitted by one parent, usually the custodial parent.
Informal Separation: Regardless of their marital status, if your parents do not reside together, you may want to seek an informal separation. Even if they live on different floors of the same house, they are still regarded as living together.
Temporary Absences: A period of time spent away from job, education, illness, the military, or jail does not count towards a separation. The date the FAFSA is filed determines the marital status of the applicant.
When parents get divorced, who fills out the FAFSA?
The parent who supports you financially more than the other when your legal parents are not living together and are divorced, separated, or never married will be the one to file the FAFSA.
The parent with the higher income is in charge of filling out the FAFSA if the parents divide the cost of raising their child equally, according to U.S. Department of Education guidelines.
Parents: Who Is Eligible?
The legal parent of the student must submit the FAFSA. The student’s biological and adoptive parents may be considered legal parents. Even if they are not the student’s biological or adoptive parents, parents who are identified as parents on their birth certificate may also be considered legal parents.
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, foster parents, guardians, widowed stepparents, and other family members are not considered legal parents unless they have obtained legal adoption for the student.
You are exempt from providing your legal parents’ information on the FAFSA if you do not reside with them.
If your parent remarries, what will happen?
The stepparent’s income and asset information must also be disclosed on the FAFSA if the parent who provides the majority of the financial support has remarried as of the date the application is submitted. Because prenuptial agreements are governed by federal law, they are disregarded.
20 USC 1087oo(f)(3) is the statutory citation for this obligation.
There are no exceptions to this regulation, according to guidance released by the U.S. Department of Education. Even if the filing parent and stepparent were not married at the time, the stepparent’s income from the base year (the previous-prior year) needs to be disclosed.
If the children were under 19 as of December 31 of the tax year, if the stepparent and custodial parent provided more than half of their financial support, and if those children lived with them for more than half of the tax year, then the stepparent’s other children, if any, are counted in the household size calculation. If these kids are enrolled in college at least part-time, their count is included in the total number of kids in college.
Generally speaking, if your stepparent is lawfully married to your custodial parent, then you simply need to provide their details. If they are cohabiting but not legally married, you do not need to disclose their assets or income on the FAFSA; however, you do need to disclose their nontaxable income as well as any rent or utility contributions they make.
You will have to list your parent(s) and their partner on the application, though, if they are regarded as common law spouses. In many places, after living together for a predetermined amount of time, partners are recognized as common law spouses. If your stepparent is regarded as your parent’s common-law spouse, be careful to report them in accordance with your state’s legal requirements.
What Remains After Several Parents Complete the FAFSA?
If both parents share a home, who completes the FAFSA jointly?
On the FAFSA, a student’s parents are classified as married even if they are separated, divorced, or never married but still reside together.
This implies that both parents’ assets and income must be disclosed, and that both parents’ household size is taken into account.
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The relationship between the parents and the student is more important to the FAFSA than the relationship between the parents.
The parent and stepparent (if applicable) who provide the student the most financial support must complete the FAFSA if the parents are divorced, one or both of them have remarried, and they all reside together.
Filling Out the FAFSA in the Event of Your Parents' Divorce
A few other factors, such whether your parents still live together and which parent supports you financially more as discussed in the previous sections will determine how you fill out the FAFSA.
You can then use the information of the parent who gave you more financial help to finish the application once you’ve decided which parent should submit the FAFSA. Add the information about your stepparent as well, if this parent is married.
Applicants and their parents agree for the IRS to submit federal tax information to the FAFSA by completing the application. Because of this, the Department of Education requires all applicants, as well as their parents, to obtain an FSA ID (which may be done online). Parents without a social security number who are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States will still be able to obtain an FSA ID.
Documents Required for FAFSA Completion
You will need the following details to complete the FAFSA for yourself, the parent filing on your behalf, and your stepparent if applicable:
* Social Security numbers
*Â For non-citizens of the United States, your A-number
*Â Both your filing parent’s and stepparent’s federal tax records
*Â Records pertaining to any unreported income
*Â Records pertaining to the financial reserves, business revenue, investments, liquid assets, and farm and business assets of both you and your filing parent
*Â The date of the official separation of your parents
For more information on How long does FAFSA take to process, take a look at our posts on preparing to apply for financial aid,
common FAFSA errors, and FAFSA deadlines you should know.
What Happens If the Parent Who Gives You More Financial Support Passes Away?
Even though you are still living with your stepparent in this situation, your other parent must file the FAFSA.
Unless they have officially adopted the kid, a stepparent is only recognized as a parent for the purposes of federal student aid if they are married to the parent. For the purposes of federal student aid, the stepparent is no longer regarded as a parent once the parent passes away. For instance, in the event of the parent’s death, the student cannot obtain a Federal Parent PLUS loan from a stepparent who has not adopted the child.
Should the other parent be unlocatable, have not maintained meaningful communication with the student, or have not given financial assistance, the college financial aid administrator may do a dependency override. The student’s reliance status is changed from dependent to independent by a dependency override. For an independent student, parent information is not needed.
The student may receive financial assistance from the stepparent to aid with college costs. This support will not be listed as untaxed income on the student’s FAFSA under the new FAFSA regulations.
Conclusion:
With divorced parents, there are a number of variables to consider when filling out the FAFSA, including whether or not your parents are still living together, which parent supports you financially more, and whether or not that parent has remarried.
Just keep in mind that you should only fill out the FAFSA with the income and asset information of one parent, as well as the spouse’s information if applicable, if your parents are divorced, separated, or never married. To guarantee that you receive an appropriate assessment and can access the financial help to which you are eligible, it is imperative that you become acquainted with the regulations.
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