<prompt> Human: My friend comes from a large, lower middle class family who would not be able to afford paying for college directly. My friend was told not to apply for any scholarships or financial aid, and now plans to go to community college and work their way through for the next 2 years. My friend scored high on their SAT and has worked very hard, and it seems unfair to me for my friend to have to suffer for the parents mistake. Is there any way to get around this?Sorry if this is a bad question, and that I dont have very many details. Im just concerned for this person. Thank you, any help is appreciated. Assistant: Uh by not paying taxes do you mean they dont have any tax liability or do you mean straight up tax evasion?From your post it sounds like the latter. If so, your friend is kind of SOL on the financial aid stand point as they will verify his households taxes and uncover the evasion. IIRC merit scholarships dont necessarily pull tax returns this definitely depends as I never filled out the FAFSA but was still able to get a merit scholarship with the school I went to.Im not sure if private student loans check the household tax returns. Federal most likely will.But yeah, your friend is in a pretty tough spot and will probably have to pay his own way through college or take out a significant amount in private loans. The only other option is for his parents to pay all the back taxes they owe...which seems like exactly what they dont want to do :Human: Yeah, from what I understand it is tax evasion. Is there no way for him to establish himself as an independent, like if he got married and was able to provide his own household taxes, would that change anything?  <response>: He can report his parents for evasion, collect the reward and pay for college w cash. Although this may make things awkward next family get togethet 