<prompt> Human: Long story short: Im 18 years old. 9 months ago I moved far away and I have no contact with my parents. My entire family is on welfare and I dont remember any of them ever working. I was in the foster system a few time but always returned. Both my parents have also been in jail before and have also been caught lying to get more benefits. I moved far away 9 months ago. I have a job and just signed up to classes at night school College was not an option for me because my guidance counselor was not helpful, my grades werent great due to being moved around in foster care and there was no way my parents would cooperate to help me get FAFSA anyway As far as I know my parents have never filed taxes because they have only ever been on welfare. But if either one did falsely claim me on their taxes or as a dependent to get more welfare would this affect me filing my taxes? Could I be audited or accused of filing a fake return? I am sorry if these are stupid questions but I dont underestimate my parents when it comes to lying and cheating to get more money and they used to threaten me all the time that I would get in trouble along with them and go to jail too.  <response>: I think the more important issue is college. 1. Dont worry about FAFSA. In most cases, you can provide an affidavit that basically states your parents will not help you. Given welfare family, foster care, etc. this should be very easy to demonstrate. If youre admitted to college, there are ways to make the finances work out. 2. Regarding grades, better schools will look at student background. Admissions looks for potential. There is no expectation that a kid from a family with two welfare parents will have identical achievement to a kid with two Ph.D parents. One of the core problems with people from your background is that talented kids dont apply to college -- even if they could get in and get financial aid or scholarships. Bad counsellors are part of the problem. There are reports about this -- most underestimate the college they might be able to go to and apply a few tiers down My advice would be to call up a number of schools, and talk to people in their admissions departments. Your goals are:1. To figure out where you might get in you wont have an idea until youve talked to someone in admissions. 2. Understand more about how things like scholarships and financial aid work for someone with your background. Include schools of all tiers -- from community college to MITHarvardStanford. Even if youre not going there, theyll have different types of information. Regarding financial aid, take a look at an article like this: In most cases, money is a problem for middle class parents. The financial aid policies tend to be very generous at the bottom, not necessary at the top, and its the middle that gets hit. 