Who claims dependent on taxes if parent is on fafsa?

[mtlarios64]

My husband has claimed my stepdaughter for the last 18 years on taxes and he is the main parent. Providing 100% of all the costs and housing however my stepdaughter used her mothers information on fafsa rather than her father for the first time this year. Can he still claim her on taxes or does the mother because her information was on fafsa? 

[KrisD15]

Federal tax returns are governed by tax law. If she is his dependent, he claims her. FASFA does not enter into it. 

A person can only be claimed by one taxpayer. If the person is claimed as a dependent, they can still file a tax return, but they must mark that someone else is claiming them.

Qualifying child

RELATIONSHIP: A qualifying child can be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, adopted child or an offspring of any of them.

AGE: The child must be younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly), AND at the end of the tax year, your child must have been under age 19 (or under 24 if a full-time student). There is no age limit if your child is permanently and totally disabled.

RESIDENCY: Your child must live with you for more than half the year. There are exceptions, such as being away at school, serving in the military, hospitalization and nursing home situations.

SUPPORT: Your child may not have provided more than half of their own support. Scholarships and grants are not considered as support provided by the student.

JOINT RETURN: Your child cannot file on a Married Filing Jointly” return. (The exception is if they only file to claim a refund)

Are you the only person claiming them? This requirement commonly applies to children of divorced parents. Here you must use the “tie breaker rules,” which are found in IRS Publication 501. These rules establish income, parentage and residency requirements for claiming a child.

Parents might also file an agreement allowing the non-custodial parent to claim a child.

[rjs]

As KrisD15 said, the FAFSA does not determine who claims the student as a dependent. The tax laws determine who claims the student. If your stepdaughter lived with her father more than with her mother, then the father is going to be the one who can claim her, or you and he can claim her if you are filing jointly. When you answer the questions in TurboTax about his daughter it will tell you whether he can claim her. It will not ask about the FAFSA because that is not one of the things that determines who can claim the dependent.

In the case of parents who are divorced or separated, the instructions for the FAFSA say to use the information about the parent that the student lived with more during the last 12 months. The  instructions also say that if that parent has remarried, use the information about that parent and the stepparent. So it appears that your stepdaughter filled out the FAFSA incorrectly. I believe that there is a procedure for making corrections to the FAFSA, but I'm not familiar with the details. Your stepdaughter should look into that.

[mtlarios64]

Thank you for the information. They were never married at all and the mother doesn't support her or provide any support at al. Looks like he'll be claiming her then and thank you for the input on FAFSA. I think her best bet is fixing her fafsa if she can.