Does it matter if my father claims me on his taxes?

It does not matter if your parents claim you on their IRS tax return. What FAFSA looks to determine federal aid is whether you are a dependent or independent. There is a section on the FAFSA that asks a serious of questions to determine your dependency status like will you be 24 at… (there is a date they use but cant remember off the top of my head) do you have dependents of your own, are you married, are you a veteran of the armed forces, etc… Go to fafsa.ed.gov to view those questions.

It depends…have you completed the FAFSA (www.fafsa.ed.gov)? Most schools require you to complete the FAFSA in order to apply for financial aid. If you have not, you need to see if you can be classified as a Dependent or Independent student. In order to be classifed as Independent you need to be able to answer “Yes” to one of the following questions that is asked on the FAFSA:

were you born before 1/1/1984

are you a graduate or professional student

are you married

do you have children you support

do you have legal dependents

are you an orphan or ward of the court

are you active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces

are you a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces

If you cannot answer “Yes” to any of these questions, then you will be classifed as a Dependent and need to provide your parent’s income information. If your dad is claiming you on his taxes, then you would need to provide his tax information when completing the FAFSA.

Is the reason that it’s only your dad claiming you on taxes is because your parents are divorced? Or is it because he is a widower? The reason I ask is that if they are divorced, then when completing the FAFSA you will have to determine which parent provides more than 50% to you (even if you don’t live with them). I’m assuming that would be your dad since he’s claiming you on his taxes.

You will want to contact the financial aid officer at your school for more information.

Good luck!

It does not matter if you are claimed by your parents or which parent is claiming you on their taxes as it pertains to financial aid. If you cannot answer “yes” to the dependency questions, you must file your FAFSA using your parents’ financial information.

Please be advised that most companies will not cover the college-aged student for medical and dental expenses or provide tuition reimbursement (if available as part of the parents’ benefit package) IF they do not claim you on the taxes.

Yes, it does matter. If he claims you then he is supporting you and they will take his income into account when figuring out how much you could afford to pay. This is going to wind up cutting down your financial aid.

It actually matters for FinAid. Since to file for FAFSA you must report all income and support that you receive (as reported to the government in your/his taxes), having someone with a higher income claiming you often means that your family’s share of your education’s cost will need to be absorbed by you.

Basically, because FAFSA reads it that your father is providing you with at least 60% of all income you receive, it is assumed then that he will also cover part of your educational costs.

It’s more complicated then you may think for you and for him as well as your mother.