Divorced parent with primary custody - Who fills out FAFSA when ex has higher income?

You're absolutely on the right track! Since you have primary physical custody (well over the 50% threshold), you are considered the custodial parent for FAFSA purposes. Only YOUR income and household information should be reported on the FAFSA application. Your ex-husband's income is completely irrelevant for federal financial aid calculations, regardless of how much he makes or whether he's remarried. The only financial support from him you need to report is the child support you receive, which does count as untaxed income on the FAFSA. Don't worry about his higher household income - it won't affect your daughter's aid eligibility at all.

my Parents r divorced 2 & my mom did mine becuz i lived with her more than half the time. u dont need to worry about ur ex's income at ALL just put urs + the child support u get. thats it.

Just to add some additional clarity: The FAFSA follows a very specific definition for determining which parent fills out the form in cases of divorce/separation. It's based on physical custody over the past 12 months - not legal custody arrangements or who claims the child on taxes. Since your daughter lives with you 98% of the time, you are definitely the parent who should complete the FAFSA. You'll need to report: - Your income and assets - Child support received ($282 every other week) - Any alimony received (if applicable) You do NOT report: - Your ex-husband's income - Your ex-husband's spouse's income - The value of health insurance provided by your ex One important note: If you've remarried, your current spouse's income and assets WOULD need to be included on the FAFSA, even if they're not legally related to your daughter.

lol don't stress too much I put the wrong parent when I did mine (dad instead of mom who I lived with) and ended up with ZERO financial aid. Had to take a gap year and reapply 🙃 Fun times. Just make sure YOU fill it out since she lives with you!

Everyone is giving good advice here about YOU being the one to complete the FAFSA as the custodial parent. One thing to be aware of though - while your ex's income doesn't matter for federal aid (FAFSA), some private colleges also require the CSS Profile for institutional aid, and THAT form sometimes does require the non-custodial parent's information too. So if your daughter is applying to private schools, you might want to check if they require the CSS Profile and what their policies are regarding divorced parents. Each school has different rules about this.

The whole system is DESIGNED to be confusing and trick parents! My ex refused to provide his info for the CSS Profile and my son lost out on $15k in institutional aid from his dream school. And guess what? I had primary custody too but that didn't matter to the private college - they wanted BOTH parents' info or nothing. The FAFSA is just the tip of the iceberg of this broken system. Start having these convos with your ex NOW if she's considering private schools.

I've been trying to reach the Federal Student Aid folks for weeks with questions about my divorced parent situation and kept getting nowhere. Someone on another forum recommended using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to a FAFSA agent without the endless hold times. I was skeptical but it actually worked! Got connected to a live person in about 10 mins who answered all my custodial parent questions. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ Definitely worth it for complicated situations like yours.

One last thing I want to mention - make sure you're ready for the new FAFSA process. The form was completely redesigned for the 2024-2025 aid year, and there will be some additional changes for 2025-2026 (when your daughter is starting college). The big change is that they no longer use the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and instead calculate a Student Aid Index (SAI). The good news is that the rules about which parent completes the FAFSA in divorce situations haven't changed - it's still the custodial parent, which is you.

I just went through this exact same situation last year with my son! You're absolutely right to fill out the FAFSA as the custodial parent since your daughter lives with you 98% of the time. Don't stress about your ex's higher income - it literally doesn't matter for federal aid eligibility. One tip that saved me a lot of headache: make sure you have all your child support documentation organized before you start the FAFSA. You'll need to report the total amount you received in the tax year, not just the weekly/biweekly amounts. I calculated it wrong the first time and had to make corrections later. Also, if your daughter is considering any private colleges, definitely start that conversation with your ex about the CSS Profile NOW. Even though you don't get along great, frame it as "this could help our daughter get more money for college" - that usually gets their attention! Good luck, you've got this!