Easier FAFSA Inspires Hope for More College Aid

My son is 24 years old. He finished his bachelor's degree from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2008. He is now attending the New England Culinary Art Institute.

He has worked since he was 15.

He and his fiance live with us between school terms and on weekends. I pay his car payment and insurance and medical bills. I pay his phone bill.

Most of the time he buys his own food and clothing. He does not pay any rent or electrical, etc. He does pay for his tuition and books.

For 2008 taxes he claimed himself and we had to pay quite a large amount (for us)to both state and federal taxes.

For 2009 He also claimed himself. He was able to get a fair amount of financial aide.

I am on disability, but I want to go back to work. I am now back in college trying to complete my Bachelor's and Master's degree.

My son is getting married in 9/2010.

My questions are;

1. Should we have claimed him on 2008 taxes? If so, can we go back and amend that.

2. We haven't filed 2009 taxes due to illness. He has claimed himself.

Should he file an amendment and have us claim him?

3. I am about to fill out a FASFA for myself. I think it would benefit me in financial aide department, but I don't want his benefits to get reduced.

He is on the border of us claiming him on income tax.

I have co-signed all of his student loans.

I don't want to hurt him for my benefit. I will have to cosign student loans for any amount , he doesn't get in financial aide.

Can we do trial FASFA's both ways and see the outcome.

I don't want to do anything illegal. He meets criteria to claim himself and for us to claim him.

Please Advise

Annette Maye of NY 4:33PM May 31, 2010

i'VE BEEN AN ONLINE STUDENT SINCE 2007; HOW WILL THIS NEW LAW HELP ME?

Georgia Myrick of MS 10:04AM April 02, 2010

My long-time issues with the FAFSA include not only the multiple deadlines (one for the school, the later one for the Feds), but the level of detail required which translates into a tremendous amount of time filling in the FAFSA form - and most of that detail could so easily by retrieved by the FAFSA entity from our 1040 filings, saving us the time and effort re-entering duplicate data!

The deadline schedules where the schools require the FAFSA be completed as early at March 1 is ludicrous, given many of us have barely received all the documents necessary to complete our taxes by that time (and most of the FAFSA fields come directly from the 1040!).

To top it all off, with all the layoffs, the FAFSA data as input does not accurately reflect the current economic situation of the family, but that of the time when perhaps the parent(s) were still employed.

Just as the tax laws need to be simplified, so do the FAFSA forms.

Karen F of MI 6:02PM March 10, 2010

This artcile contains many mistruths that it will cause people that buy into what is being presented to be misguided in the financial aid process. Of course you should always file your FAFSA by a partcular school's deadline, which is sometimes an earlier deadline than the state's. check your finacial aid office web site at your school.

Did you know that here are many free sources of help in filing the FAFSA? For instance, your school's finacial aid office. Most paid prepares game the system, which the applicant and parent will ultimatley be held accountable for if caught, not the paid FAFSA preparer.

Before people comment on the FAFSA they should fill one out first. Did you know that the FAFSA gives you specific line number references to your tax return to get the information? For example I'm pasting this directly from the FAFSA, "Tax exempt interest income from IRS Form 1040—line 8b or 1040A—line 8b." If you can't look at your tax return and locate Line 8b, then you probaly should'lt be going to college. Of course if that partcular number is blank, then i hope your smart enough to enter 0 on the FAFSA.

If you havenen't done your taxes yet the FAFSA has an option of "will file" and you'll be sent an email reminder after the April 15th tax filing deadline to go back in and update the FAFSA after your taxes are done. You can guestimate off the previous year's taxes when applying to get an early FAFSA application date. For example, on the 2010-11 FAFSA guestimate from your 2008 tax return and then go back and update the FAFSA after you file your 2009 tax return. If you did not, or will not file a tax return the FAFSA is even simpler.

Get it straight and stop spreading bogus info.

Joe Thestudent of CA 11:39AM March 05, 2010