FAFSA confusion - parents married but filing taxes separately, who completes the form?

Thank you! So I'll need both our tax returns when filling it out? Is there a specific section that asks for the second parent's information, or do we combine all our numbers somewhere?

Oh no! That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. How long did the verification process take for you guys?

This is ONE thing the govt finally got right with FAFSA. My parents were divorced but my dad never paid support and my mom had to do it all but they still counted his income even tho he didnt contribute ANYTHING to my college. At least for OP they're actually MARRIED so it makes sense!!!

This is really helpful, thank you. Do you know if they look at our retirement accounts too? We have separate 401ks.

Good news - retirement accounts (401ks, IRAs, pension plans) are NOT reported on the FAFSA! The only assets you need to report are checking/savings accounts, investments, and real estate other than your primary residence. So your separate 401ks won't be counted in the SAI calculation.

I actually found a service called Claimyr that helped me get through to FSA quickly when I had questions about parent information last semester. Their system holds your place in line and calls you when an agent is available. Saved me hours of frustration! They have a video showing how it works at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ and their website is claimyr.com if you want to check it out. It was actually worth it for me since I had some complex questions about my parents' business income that weren't addressed in the FAFSA instructions.

wait for real?? i'm going to try this tomorrow. the FSA phone system is literally the worst thing I've ever experienced

This is extremely helpful information, thank you so much! We'll make sure to have all those documents ready for both of us. One last question - we have a rental property that generates some income. Do we need to include that somewhere specific?

Yes, rental property information needs to be included in two places: 1. The rental income itself should have been reported on your tax returns, so that will be captured when you enter your tax information 2. The value of the rental property (minus what you owe on it) needs to be reported in the assets section for parents. This is the current market value of the property minus any debt you still owe on it. Just be careful not to include your primary residence - that's excluded from FAFSA asset calculations.

This is such a great point about using current market value vs. original purchase price! I hadn't thought about that distinction. We bought our rental property about 8 years ago and it's definitely appreciated quite a bit since then. Do you happen to know if we need to get a formal appraisal for the FAFSA, or is a reasonable estimate based on comparable sales in the area acceptable? I don't want to overestimate and hurt our aid eligibility, but I also don't want to underestimate and get flagged for verification.

You don't need a formal appraisal for FAFSA - a reasonable estimate is perfectly acceptable! Most families use online tools like Zillow, Realtor.com, or recent comparable sales in your neighborhood to get a ballpark figure. The key is being reasonable and consistent. If you're ever selected for verification, you might need to provide documentation, but even then it's usually just a brief explanation of how you arrived at your estimate. I'd suggest looking at 2-3 different online estimates and using something in that range. The FAFSA processors understand that property values fluctuate and they're not expecting pinpoint accuracy to the dollar.

Thank you for sharing your experience! The checklist idea is brilliant - I'm definitely going to do that before we start. It's reassuring to hear from someone who went through the same situation successfully. Quick question: when you say you completed it together, did you both need to be present for the entire process, or could one parent handle most of it as long as you had all the documents from both? My husband travels for work quite a bit, so I'm wondering if I can do most of the heavy lifting and just get his information beforehand.

You can absolutely handle most of it yourself as long as you have all the necessary documents and information from both parents! I did about 90% of our FAFSA while my husband was traveling - I just made sure to have copies of his tax return, W-2, and knew his SSN and other basic info. The only time I really needed him was when I had a question about one of his business expenses that wasn't clear from his tax return. The FAFSA system doesn't require both parents to be physically present or logged in simultaneously. Just make sure you have accurate information for both parents before you start, and maybe do a quick review call with him before you submit to double-check everything looks right. It's actually easier than trying to coordinate schedules for both of you to sit down together!

Thank you for the professional perspective! It's really reassuring to hear from someone who actually works in financial aid that we're on the right track. Your point about verification being random is helpful to know - I was wondering if certain income levels or situations automatically trigger it. One quick question: you mentioned being "consistent and reasonable" with asset reporting. For things like checking account balances that fluctuate daily, should we use the balance on a specific date (like when we're filling out the form) or try to estimate an average balance? I want to make sure we're doing this the right way from the start.

For checking account balances, the FAFSA asks for the balance "as of today" - meaning the day you're filling out the form. You don't need to calculate averages or worry about normal fluctuations from paychecks and monthly expenses. Just use whatever the actual balance is when you're completing that section. The financial aid system understands that account balances change regularly. The key is just being honest about what's there on that specific day. If you happen to have an unusually high balance because you just got paid or an unusually low balance because you just paid a bunch of bills, that's totally fine - it all evens out across all applicants. Don't overthink it!

This is such valuable insight about shared assets - thank you for sharing! I hadn't even thought about the potential for double-reporting joint accounts. We do have a joint savings account, and now I'm realizing we need to figure out whose SSN is primary on it before we start the application. Do you know if there's an easy way to check this, or do we need to call the bank? Also, the tip about saving screenshots is brilliant - I can already imagine needing to reference the information later. Did you find that most schools wanted the same information for their institutional aid forms, or did they ask for additional details beyond what's in the FAFSA?

You can usually find the primary SSN info by logging into your online banking account and looking at the account details, or checking your most recent bank statements - it's often listed there. If not, a quick call to the bank should clear it up easily. As for school-specific aid forms, most schools do ask for similar information, but some (especially private schools) use the CSS Profile which can be more detailed. They might ask about things like home equity, small business assets, or non-custodial parent information that the FAFSA doesn't cover. I'd recommend checking each of your son's target schools' financial aid websites to see what additional forms they require - some have their own institutional forms too. Getting organized early like you're doing will make all of these much more manageable!

Wow, two months of delay sounds like a nightmare! Thank you for sharing your experience - it's exactly the kind of mistake I was worried about making. It's really helpful to hear the specific documentation they required during verification too. I'm definitely convinced now that we need to be extra careful to include both parents' information from the beginning. Did you find that the verification process was mostly just providing documents, or did you have to explain a lot of things in writing as well? I want to make sure we do everything right the first time so we can avoid that whole ordeal!

The verification process was mostly document submission, but we did have to write a brief explanation letter about why we file taxes separately despite being married (in our case, it was because of some state tax benefits). The school's financial aid office was actually pretty understanding once we provided all the paperwork - they said it's a really common mistake they see every year. The frustrating part was just the timing delay because verification requests seem to get processed slower than regular FAFSA applications. One tip: if you do end up in verification for any reason, respond to requests as quickly as possible. Some of our delay was because we took a few weeks to gather all the documents they wanted. But honestly, following all the advice in this thread should help you avoid the whole situation entirely!