FAFSA household size confusion - adult child living at home but files taxes independently

You've run into a common FAFSA household size question! The official rule is that your household includes: 1. You and your spouse 2. Your children (even if they don't live with you) IF they receive more than half their support from you 3. Other people IF they live with you AND receive more than half their support from you The key for your 24-year-old son is whether he receives more than half his support from you. If he pays rent, files independently, and supports himself mostly, then he's NOT counted in your FAFSA household, even if he lives with you. The college's financial aid office is probably right that it won't affect your daughter's aid calculation much since her older brother is over 23 and not in undergraduate school.

we had EXACTLY this situation last yr!!! my oldest daughter (22) lives at home but has fulltime job and files her own taxes. financial aid ppl told us NOT to count her in household size even tho she eats our food lol. they said its about financial support not where they sleep

The financial aid officer is correct that this specific change likely won't affect your Expected Family Contribution (now called the Student Aid Index or SAI). Here's why: adult students who are not in undergraduate programs AND who are over 23 have minimal impact on the formula, especially if they're financially independent. However, I always recommend being 100% accurate on your FAFSA. If you're selected for verification later (about 30% of FAFSA filers are), any discrepancies could cause delays or complications. If you want to be extremely precise: calculate whether you provide more than 50% of his support. Factor in the fair market value of housing (even with his small rent contribution), food, utilities, phone plans, health insurance, etc. If it's close to 50%, document your calculation in case of verification.

Anyone else think its RIDICULOUS how complicated they make this whole process??? Like why can't they just ask "who lives in your house" and be done with it? So many rules and exceptions!

I spent 3 hours on hold with Federal Student Aid trying to get this exact question answered last year. After being disconnected twice, I found Claimyr.com which got me through to an actual FAFSA agent in about 15 minutes. They have a service that keeps 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: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ Anyway, the FAFSA agent told me household size is based on who you FINANCIALLY support more than 50%, not just who lives with you. My 25-year-old daughter who lives at home but has a full-time job wasn't counted in our household size.

I'm a financial aid counselor, and I can tell you this is one of our most common questions! Here's the practical advice I give families: 1. The FAFSA household size question is about FINANCIAL support, not physical residence 2. Your 24-year-old son who files independently and pays rent is correctly excluded from your household count 3. The SAI formula gives very little weight to older non-undergraduate household members anyway 4. If you're providing less than 50% of his support, keep your household size at 4 Don't overthink this - the financial aid officer at your daughter's school is correct. Making a correction now could potentially flag your application for verification, which means more paperwork and potential delays for no benefit.

I'm FREAKING OUT reading this thread because we DID include our 25-year-old daughter who lives with us but works full-time in our household size!!! We just submitted last week!!! Do we need to correct this ASAP???!!!

my cousins bfs sister got audited by fasfa and they made her pay back $4000 in grants because she reported wrong household size so BE CAREFUL!!!

As someone who just went through this exact situation with my 23-year-old son, I can confirm that household size is definitely about financial support, not residence. My son lives with us but works full-time and pays for his own car, phone, food, etc. We only provide housing (he pays us rent) and he's on our health insurance until 26. When I calculated it out, we were providing maybe 30% of his total support, so we correctly excluded him from our FAFSA household size. The financial aid office at my daughter's school actually praised us for getting it right because they said so many families include adult children who are financially independent. One tip: if you're ever unsure about the 50% support calculation, think about it this way - if your adult child moved out tomorrow, would your family's expenses decrease significantly? If not, they're probably supporting themselves and shouldn't be counted in your household size.

I'm dealing with a similar situation right now! My 22-year-old daughter graduated last year and moved back home while she saves for her own place. She has a full-time job and pays us $300/month rent, but we still cover her car insurance and she's on our family cell phone plan. Reading through all these responses really helped clarify the 50% support rule. I think the key insight from @Miguel Hernández about whether your expenses would decrease significantly if they moved out is brilliant - that's such an easier way to think about it than trying to calculate exact dollar amounts. For anyone else confused about this, it sounds like the general consensus is: if your adult child files their own taxes, pays their own major expenses, and you're not claiming them as a dependent, they probably shouldn't be counted in your FAFSA household size even if they live with you. The physical address doesn't matter as much as who's actually financially supporting whom. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this thread saved me from making the same mistake!

This is such a helpful thread! I'm a newcomer here but dealing with a similar situation. My 21-year-old son lives with us while finishing his associate degree at community college and working part-time. He files his own taxes but we still provide most of his support - we pay for his tuition, car insurance, phone, and most groceries. He only contributes about $200/month from his part-time job. Based on what everyone's shared here, it sounds like since we're providing way more than 50% of his support, we should include him in our household size even though he files independently? The @Miguel Hernández test about "would expenses decrease significantly" is really helpful - our costs would definitely go down a lot if he moved out since we're covering most of his major expenses. I'm planning to submit my younger daughter's FAFSA next month, so this conversation is perfectly timed. Thanks to everyone who shared their real experiences - it makes this confusing process so much clearer!

This thread has been so educational! As someone new to the FAFSA process (my oldest just started college this year), I had no idea the household size rules were so nuanced. I initially thought it was just about who lives under your roof, but clearly the financial support aspect is what really matters. My situation is a bit different - my 26-year-old stepson occasionally stays with us between apartments but is completely financially independent with his own career. Based on everything shared here, it's clear he shouldn't be counted in our household size even when he's temporarily living with us, since we provide zero financial support. The @Miguel Hernández "expense test" and all the real-world examples from everyone have been incredibly helpful. It's reassuring to see a community where people share actual experiences rather than just guessing at the rules. I feel much more confident about filling out future FAFSAs correctly now!

As a newcomer to this community, I'm really grateful for this detailed discussion! I'm about to fill out my first FAFSA for my daughter and was completely confused about household size. My 23-year-old son lives with us but works full-time and covers most of his own expenses except health insurance (he's still on our plan until 26). The @Miguel Hernández "expense test" is brilliant - if he moved out, our household expenses really wouldn't change much since he pays for his own food, gas, phone, etc. We'd just lose his small rent contribution. Based on everyone's experiences here, it sounds like he shouldn't be counted in our household size since we're providing way less than 50% of his support. This thread has been more helpful than any official FAFSA guidance I've read! It's amazing how sharing real situations makes these confusing rules so much clearer. Thanks to everyone who took the time to explain their experiences - you've saved me from making a costly mistake on our first FAFSA submission.

As a newcomer to this community, I found this entire discussion incredibly enlightening! I'm preparing to file my first FAFSA for my twins who will be starting college next fall, and I was completely lost on the household size question. We have a similar situation with my 25-year-old daughter who moved back home after grad school while job hunting. She's been here about 8 months now, pays us $400/month rent, and covers her own car payment and student loans, but we're still paying for her health insurance, groceries, and utilities. Using the @Miguel Hernández "expense test" - if she moved out tomorrow, our grocery bill would definitely decrease, we'd lose her rent income but save on utilities and insurance costs. It's probably close to that 50% threshold, which makes me nervous about getting it wrong. Reading through everyone's experiences, especially the verification stories, I'm wondering if I should err on the side of caution and NOT include her in our household size? It sounds like being conservative might avoid potential complications down the road. The last thing I want is to deal with verification issues when my twins are starting college! Thanks to everyone who shared their real-world experiences - this has been more helpful than hours of reading official FAFSA documentation!

As a newcomer to this community, I want to thank everyone for this incredibly detailed discussion! I'm currently filling out my first FAFSA for my daughter and was completely overwhelmed by the household size question. My situation is a bit unique - my 22-year-old son is active duty military and stationed overseas, but he still lists our address as his home of record. He's obviously financially independent and doesn't receive any support from us, but I wasn't sure if his military status or having our address on file changed anything. After reading through all these experiences, especially the @Miguel Hernández "expense test," it's clear he shouldn't be counted in our household size since we provide zero financial support. The fact that he uses our address for military purposes doesn't create a support relationship. This thread has been more helpful than any official guidance I've found! It's amazing how real-world examples clarify these confusing rules. I feel much more confident about our FAFSA submission now, knowing that household size is truly about financial support rather than addresses or family relationships. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences - you've helped another family navigate this process correctly!

As a newcomer to this community, I'm so grateful I found this thread! I'm preparing to submit my first FAFSA for my son and was completely confused about household size rules. My situation: I'm a single parent with my 19-year-old son (the college applicant) and my 23-year-old daughter who moved back home after college graduation 6 months ago. She's working full-time as a teacher but living with us while saving for a house down payment. She pays me $500/month rent and buys her own groceries, but I still cover her car insurance and phone plan since they're family plans. Reading everyone's experiences here, especially the @Miguel Hernández "expense test," has been so clarifying! If my daughter moved out tomorrow, I'd lose her rent money but save on car insurance and phone costs, and my grocery/utility bills wouldn't change much since she buys her own food. It seems like she's supporting herself for the most part. Based on all the advice shared here, I'm thinking my household size should be 2 (just me and my college-bound son), not 3. Does this sound right to everyone? I'd rather get it correct from the start than deal with verification issues later! Thank you all for sharing your real experiences - this has been more helpful than any official FAFSA guide I've read!

As a newcomer to this community, I just want to say how incredibly helpful this entire thread has been! I'm getting ready to file my first FAFSA for my daughter next month and was completely lost about household size calculations. We have a 21-year-old son who graduated college last year and moved back home while he saves money and looks for a better job. He works part-time at a retail store, pays us $300/month rent, and covers his own car payment and gas. However, we're still paying for his health insurance, groceries, phone plan, and he's on our car insurance policy. After reading all these real experiences and especially the @Miguel Hernández "expense test," I think we're probably providing more than 50% of his support despite his rent contribution. If he moved out tomorrow, our grocery bills would definitely decrease significantly, and we'd save on insurance costs but lose his rent income. I'm planning to include him in our household size of 4 (me, spouse, college daughter, and son at home). This thread has given me so much more confidence about making this decision correctly! Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences - you've made this confusing process so much clearer for families like mine who are new to FAFSA.

As a newcomer to this community, I'm so thankful I found this discussion! I'm preparing my first FAFSA for my daughter and had the exact same confusion about household size. My situation: We have a 20-year-old son who's taking a gap year and living at home while working part-time at a local restaurant. He makes maybe $800/month and gives us $200 for "rent," but we're still covering his health insurance, most groceries, car insurance, phone bill, and basically all his other expenses. The @Miguel Hernández "expense test" is such a game-changer! If my son moved out tomorrow, our expenses would definitely go down significantly - we'd save on groceries, insurance, utilities, etc. Even though he contributes $200/month, we're clearly providing way more than 50% of his support. This thread has been more helpful than hours of reading confusing FAFSA documentation! I feel confident now that we should include him in our household size since we're financially supporting him, even though he has some income. Thank you to everyone who shared their real experiences - you've helped another confused parent navigate this correctly!