FAFSA confusion: Filing as married when I'm the secondary spouse on joint tax return?

u should be fine using the joint return info. doesnt matter who's primary. my wife was primary on ours and i used our joint stuff for my fasfa last year. no problems

As a married student filing jointly, you'll report the full household income regardless of who is the primary on the tax return. The FAFSA is designed to capture your entire household financial situation. You'll need to include: 1. Your joint Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) from your 1040 2. Both your and your spouse's W-2 information 3. All assets for both you and your spouse The system will ask for "your" information but in the context of married filing jointly, "your" means the household. Don't try to separate out individual income - that will cause problems with verification later.

Ok so if I understand correctly, even though I'm the student applying (not my husband), I should enter our FULL joint AGI from our tax return, not just "my portion"? And I need to report all assets for both of us?

The FAFSA system is SO CONFUSING for married people!!!! I went through this EXACT same thing last year. I spent HOURS trying to figure it out and the instructions make no sense. I was the secondary on our taxes but the student, and I kept thinking I needed to separate my income somehow. The whole system is designed for dependent students with parents filling it out, not adult married students!!!!

Here's what you need to know when filing FAFSA as a married person who's secondary on a joint tax return: 1. Report full household AGI from your joint return 2. Include ALL W-2s for both you and your spouse 3. Report all assets for both you and your spouse 4. Do NOT try to separate out your individual income 5. Select "Already Completed" when asked about tax filing status 6. Have your tax return handy as you'll need specific line numbers Being primary vs. secondary on the tax return is irrelevant for FAFSA purposes. The system is looking at your entire household financial situation.

For "income from work" questions, you'll enter YOUR W-2 amount in the student section and your SPOUSE'S W-2 amount in the spouse section. This is one of the few areas where the FAFSA does separate you and your spouse's information. But for the overall AGI and tax return information, you use the joint figures.

If you're still struggling with this, I highly recommend using Claimyr to get through to a Federal Student Aid agent directly. I was in the exact same situation (married, secondary on return, completely confused) and was getting nowhere with the online guides. I used claimyr.com to connect with FSA and they walked me through each section specific to my situation. They have a video demo that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ It saved me hours of frustration and the agent was able to confirm exactly how I should report our joint income. They see this situation all the time and have specific guidance that isn't clearly explained on the website.

btw make sure u have the irs data retrieval tool setup if possible. saves so much time and prevents mistakes with tax info

UPDATE: I finally got my FAFSA submitted correctly! For anyone who finds this thread later, here's what I learned: 1. As a married student, I used our full joint AGI 2. I entered my W-2 income in the student section and my husband's in the spouse section 3. I reported all our assets regardless of whose name they're in 4. Being secondary on the tax return didn't matter at all 5. Using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool auto-filled most of the tax information correctly Thank you to everyone who helped! The SAI calculation now shows on my dashboard and I can see what aid I might qualify for.

Congrats on getting it sorted out! This thread is going to be SO helpful for other married students dealing with the same confusion. I'm bookmarking it because I know I'll probably run into similar issues when I apply for grad school next year. The FAFSA really needs better instructions for married applicants - it shouldn't be this hard to figure out something so basic!