Do both parents need separate FAFSA accounts when filing taxes separately?

You only need ONE FSA ID account for the parent who will be listed as the contributor parent on the FAFSA. Even though you file taxes separately, the FAFSA still considers both parents' income for dependent students in the same household. The parent who creates the FSA ID will enter both tax returns manually. Make sure you have both sets of W-2s and tax returns available when filling out the form. The system will specifically ask about your filing status and prompt you to enter the second parent's information separately.

we both made accounts last yr for our twins and it was a MESS!! kept getting errors about duplicate info. wish someone had told us only 1 parent needed an account 🤦‍♀️

Just to add a bit more detail to the first response - when you file the 2025-2026 FAFSA, you'll indicate you're married but file separately. The parent completing the form will need to manually enter the financial information from both tax returns. The new FAFSA will calculate your Student Aid Index (SAI) based on the combined household income. One important note: if you and your husband maintain separate households, the rules might be different. But if you live together, the FAFSA considers both incomes regardless of tax filing status.

INCORRECT!!!!! My tax preparer told me that if ur filing status is MARRIED FILING SEPARATELY then BOTH parents MUST create separate FSA IDs and submit separate FAFSA forms!!!! This is different than regular married filing jointly! Don't listen to wrong advice or your daughter will get REJECTED and have to reapply!!!!

When I tried calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center about this exact question last month, I was on hold for over 2 hours and then got disconnected! Super frustrating when you just need a simple answer. I ended up using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to an agent in about 10 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ - totally worth it to get a direct answer from FSA about the married filing separately situation rather than guessing.

I'm curious - why do you file separately? My spouse and I are thinking about doing that this year for student loan income-based repayment reasons. Does it actually help with FAFSA too? or hurt?

To directly answer your question: you create ONE account, and ONE parent files the FAFSA. During the application, you'll indicate your filing status as "married filing separately," and then you'll need to enter tax information from both returns. One tip from my experience: have both tax returns and W-2s ready before starting the application. The new FAFSA for 2025-2026 will be asking for specific line items from both returns. If you use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, it may only pull information from the parent completing the form, so you'll need to manually enter the other parent's information.

Just wanted to share my experience since I went through this exact situation last year! My wife and I also file separately, and I was initially confused about the FAFSA process. We ended up having me create the single FSA ID account since my income was higher (though honestly, it probably doesn't matter which parent does it). The key thing that helped us was organizing all our documents beforehand - both of our tax returns, W-2s, and bank statements. When you get to the tax information section, the FAFSA will clearly prompt you to enter both parents' financial details separately, even though only one of you is logged in. One small heads up: the IRS Data Retrieval Tool will only auto-populate information for the parent who's logged in, so you'll need to manually type in your spouse's tax information. It's not difficult, just takes a bit longer. Good luck with your daughter's application!