At their income ($300k), they don’t get any deduction for an adult child. But as an independent tax filer, the student uses his tax free grand parent “income” $39k plus his part time job probably $10k or so to have about $50k to cover his expenses, which means he can easily claim to cover over half his living expenses independently and qualify for the $2500 AOTC (tax credit).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shady but going to inherit millions means nothing as it’s not their money now.

They get about $200k a year tax free as “gifts” to evade estate tax. Not a bad gig.

How? The annual tax-free gift limit is much lower than $200K.

I think this whole things is made up, or it is fraud.

$19000 x 2 GP x (2 DP + 3 DC) = $190000.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shady but going to inherit millions means nothing as it’s not their money now.

They get about $200k a year tax free as “gifts” to evade estate tax. Not a bad gig.

How? The annual tax-free gift limit is much lower than $200K.

I think this whole things is made up, or it is fraud.

The gift tax limit is per person. Two grandparents giving to a married couple and their three kids could give 10 gifts, so up to 190,000 per year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What they are doing is not going to work. They need to do more research.

It is working, they said they got a huge FA package. Meanwhile they own a huge home, a vacation home in Tahoe, and will inherit $10s of Ms (and even now get income from trust).

Is it possible that he was offered a merit scholarship but they are referring to it as “financial aid”? Some people do that, although it is not technically correct.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shady but going to inherit millions means nothing as it’s not their money now.

They get about $200k a year tax free as “gifts” to evade estate tax. Not a bad gig.

How? The annual tax-free gift limit is much lower than $200K.

I think this whole things is made up, or it is fraud.

Anonymous wrote:Shady but going to inherit millions means nothing as it’s not their money now.

They get about $200k a year tax free as “gifts” to evade estate tax. Not a bad gig.

Colleges know the game and do whatever they can to stop it. States vary and some are actually fairly liberal, but not typically the ones in this part of the country. Mostly, the kid would have had to be declared independent long before 18, I think. And certainly they couldn't be living at home.

It's easy to lie on financial aid esp css or reporting your finances outside linked w2s.

They do audit fafsa randomly. CSS schools will ask much harder questions and can at any time ask for additional documentation. Once busted for any fraudulent claims or submissions your kid and yourself are toast.

Anonymous wrote:My sister in law does not deduct her child from her taxes so his child files as independent (he’s 18 and lives at home but is going to college next year) and thus will apply for financial aid as financially independent. How does this work? Her DH is a CPA so I’m sure they are following a legal process, but I thought it was more involved and harder to declare?

Is the DH this kid’s father? I can see this working if DH is the stepfather, the child’s father is low income, and the child “lives with” his father on paper. Especially if the mother and stepfather aren’t legally married, or file separately, or the house is titled in his name, so that mom’s income and assets are also low. It’s also not that hard for me to imagine a CPA stepfather pulling all that to avoid paying college tuition for another man’s child.

In the documentary “Try Harder!” there was a kid like that, though he appeared to actually be living with his low-income father.

Anonymous wrote:my kid also files his own taxes and we dont deduct him. he's not considered independent by colleges.

Same

Shady but going to inherit millions means nothing as it’s not their money now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as long as the parents haven't paid more than half of his expenses in the previous two years, he'll be fine. I assume he was paying rent at his own apartment, covering his health insurance, and all his groceries since he was 16? then he's FINE and can apply as an independent.

So they rent a cheap apartment under his name, even if he never lives there, and claim the other expenses (like pay for groceries with his bank account), get cheap ACA healthcare plan — it would work 100%

I mean, why not just lie on your CSS profile and skip all this? if you want to commit fraud, you can do it without renting him an apartment - manufacturing income for him to pay for the apartment, paying for the apartment, creating a credit card history showing him paying utility and grocery bills .

Just lie if you want to lie! You own no assets! Done!

If it were that easy, every damn body would do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What they are doing is not going to work. They need to do more research.

It is working, they said they got a huge FA package. Meanwhile they own a huge home, a vacation home in Tahoe, and will inherit $10s of Ms (and even now get income from trust).

It sounds like they committed fraud.

+100 no way is this legit

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What they are doing is not going to work. They need to do more research.

It is working, they said they got a huge FA package. Meanwhile they own a huge home, a vacation home in Tahoe, and will inherit $10s of Ms (and even now get income from trust).

Aa someone who needed financial aid to get an education, this is shady a can be.

He stole from students who truly need financial aid