<prompt> Human: I live in Ohio and am currently applying for college. In order to complete the application for federal financial aid I need to input parental information to verify income. My birth mother refuses to supply me with the proper information and my father is a small business owner who hasnt filed taxes in 10 years. Will submitting his information lead to any legal issues for him or myself? If so, what other options if any do I have without using their information? Update: Met up with my biological mother who agreed to supply me with the necessary info after I admitted my sexuality was a mistake. She makes very little so its a relatively small price to pay for the financial aid.  <response>: It wont expose you to any legal issues, but the problem is that if you receive any federal financial aid then you might be selected for a process called Verification. The Department of Education selects about 13rd of all FAFSA filings and if you get chosen which is pretty likely then youll have to provide tax transcripts from both of your parents as well as an asset worksheet from your father since he owns a business. If you dont or cant provide this information, you wont receive federal financial aid. Its a legal mandate and not something that the school can really waive.Its a tricky situation, but you might have to go to the school and explain the situation. Theres not much they can do in terms of actually waiving the requirement but maybe they can give you advice on how other students have handled this type of situation in the past. Dont trust anyone who says that you can just declare yourself independent because your parents are giving you a hard time with their tax forms; independence is limited to a specific set of criteria that are written in stone within federal law and there isnt a lot of flexibility for cases where the parents are alive and in the picture but are just unwilling to pay taxes or submit paperwork. 