If you are not a citizen, your alien registration number.įor you and your custodial parent/reporting parent, federal tax information is available. This includes, according to the Federal Student Aid website: You'll have to share the same information as other students, regardless of your parents' marital status. Unless the person you live with has officially adopted you, you must still record your parents' information on FAFSA if you live with someone other than your parents. What if you live with someone other than a parent?
If your family has a common-law marriage, the custodial parent's significant other is considered a stepparent. Your state may recognize your parent and their significant other as married if they've been together for a particular amount of time and live as if they're married. Of course, common-law marriage throws a wrench into the scenario. If your significant other helps with rent or utilities, however, those payments must be reported as nontaxable income. You only need to declare your legal guardian's income if your custodial parent is just living with a new significant other and is not legally married.
And you don't report money from your noncustodial or financially unsupportive parent in that scenario. You must disclose your stepparent's information on the FAFSA if your parents do not live together and your custodial parent (or the parent who supported you financially) has remarried. What about stepparents and unmarried significant others? If you live equally with both parents, you should fill out the FAFSA for the parent who provided you with the most financial support in the previous year. Rather, it comes down to who spends the most time with you and who gives the most financial support. It's important to note that 'legal custody' does not always imply custodial parent status. That's the parent with whom you spend the most time physically. You fill out the FAFSA based on your custodial parent if your parents are divorced, separated, or never married and do not live together. You must file the FAFSA with income information from both of your parents if they live together, even if they are separated, never married, or divorced. If they're divorced, things get a little more complicated because only one parent is considered a parent for FAFSA purposes. The US Department of Education's illustration on how the FAFSA defines who's who in your family tree is really helpful.įill out the FAFSA using information from both of your parents if they aren't divorced. The EFC also takes into account the size of your family and the number of other children in your household who are attending college during the year.
This is a formula that considers your tax information, untaxed income, assets, and benefits for your family. This is significant because the data you provide will be used to calculate your expected family contribution or EFC. That means you'll need income information from your parents - yet your parents may not be the same individuals who file the FAFSA. To evaluate your financial aid eligibility, the FAFSA uses information about your family's financial position. No matter what your family situation is, we'll walk you through some fundamental ideas to make completing your FAFSA a little easier.ġ. Though having divorced or never-married parents make the FAFSA a little more challenging, your family situation shouldn't prevent you from collecting as much financial aid as possible. Four FAFSA Tips For Students With Divorced Parents