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Thread: College Strippers and Financial Aid

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    Default College Strippers and Financial Aid

    So I'm just curious if anyone on here has had to deal with this.

    I'm going to be starting University in the fall(I took a Gap Year, if anyone's gawking at my age) and I've been doing a lot of research and I think I'd like to start dancing. I'm currently still on my gap year, won't be back in the country until June, which is why I can't go down to a club and try out or anything right now.

    I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but I'm worried I'm going to make too much money and it will ruin my financial aid. My EFC for this year is based on my minimum wage earnings from the previous year, and my mother's very much not glamorous salary. And I can't just take my earnings from dancing and pay for college like I'm sure most girls are doing, because I need the earnings to pay off a rather unseemly debt...

    Has anyone else dealt with this? How much is too much?

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    God/dess simone87's Avatar
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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    are you 1099ed?

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    Isn't that something the club reports for their dancers?

    Like I said, I'm not dancing yet, so absolutely nothing has happened at this point in time. I haven't auditioned anywhere, I don't even have any shoes yet. (I'm waiting until I'm back in the country because I can't for the life of me find a store in Belgium that has them, and international shipping is a bitch. So what' 3 months of waiting if I get them for like $50 less? XD)

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    ooohh belgium..i wouldnt know much about the taxes and clubs there lol, but good luck!

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    No, I'm not going to strip in Belgium XD I'm IN Belgium. Right now. I'm returning to the US in June.

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    Belgium is full of strip clubs and adult sex stores. I'm a little surprised you're having trouble finding any of them, though perhaps you aren't in any of the big cities.

    If you're planning on using stripping income to pay off a debt, that means you'll have to claim it on your taxes. If by "unseemly" you mean the debt is incredibly high, in all likelihood, it will probably put you over the threshold to be eligible for financial aid, though you can of course still apply and hope for the best.

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    I'm sure it is. But I am in a small town, relying entirely on public transportation, living with a host family and I'd rather not explain why I want to go find a store that has stripper shoes.

    And by unseemly I don't so much mean the amount(I'm not sure what constitutes a high amount as far as debts go? It's $15,000) it's who it's to, and for what.

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    to answer your original question, if you are under age 24 and a college student, the IRS and FAFSA will almost certainly consider you to be a 'dependent' of your parents. In terms of FAFSA grant eligibility and amounts, those will be calculated based on 'total household income' i.e. your future dancing income plus your mother's income. In terms of taxes on your dancing earnings, because you cannot claim yourself as a dependent it's probable that some 30% of your future dancing earnings will wind up going toward US federal, state, and social security taxes.

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    The deadline for FAFSA is before June, I think, so this won't be an issue till next year's filing. If all you're looking at is federal student aid (no private need-based scholarships), then I wouldn't recommend you worry about curbing your earnings. The highest amount you can receive as a grant is $2,775 a semester, less if you're taking under 12 hours. If you also have private need-based scholarships on the line, most of them will outright tell you what your limits are. For example, I went to a school that was $65k/year. I started there after going to a different school for the first year, and I had already been awarded one scholarship for like $5k/semester. It was, in part, need-based. I called them up and basically said I was getting $45k/year from the school now and didn't know if I qualified for the first scholarship anymore. They said that as long as my needs were still greater than what I was getting (even though I was then getting way more than many students), I could still keep the scholarship for its full term (four years). Most foundations are way more flexible than federal aid. You will, as far as I know, still be able to get federal and private student loans, though depending on your tuition, I'm not sure you'll need them if you do well in clubs, since only your paperwork for the 2014-2015 school year and beyond will be affected.

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    if you pay off a $15k debt without reporting income you will definitely get audited. same goes with tuition payments. every club I know of that is actually worth working at reports some income now.

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    Quote Originally Posted by charlotte. View Post
    if you pay off a $15k debt without reporting income you will definitely get audited. same goes with tuition payments. every club I know of that is actually worth working at reports some income now.
    Depending on what she means by it being unseemly based on who it is to and why, there may never be a paper trail of her even having the debt, let alone paying it off. But, yes, the tuition and the increasing amount of clubs reporting income will certainly make it difficult.

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    ^^^ indeed, these days you have an increasing number of clubs reporting money earned by dancers to the IRS via 1099-misc. You've also got college bursar's offices reporting tuition paid by dancers to the IRS via 1099-T. You've got loan companies reporting 'settled' debt amounts to the IRS via 1099-K. Additionally you've got banks and other financial institutions reporting passive earnings = bank account balances to the IRS via 1099-int.

    The IRS will use its powerful computers to sift through all of these automatic reports in an attempt to compare total documented dancer 'spending' versus total reported dancer income, less the typical cost of living in the dancer's particular zip code area. If there appears to be question marks i.e. how was it possible that a dancer who reported earning $20,000 on her tax return was able to spend $12,000 on rent / utilities / food etc in her particular zip code area, plus spend $10,000 net of FAFSA grants on college tuition, plus pay off a $15,000 loan, plus increase her bank balance = bank interest earnings, expect a knock on the door.

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    Default Re: College Strippers and Financial Aid

    Agreed with everyone on not hiding it. If your club 1099s you or reports income, you're stuck. Not all clubs do - out here, unless you cash out "funny money" or get paid for VIPs via credit cards run through the club and it amounts to over $600 in a year, you won't get a 1099. They don't make us report what we made at the end of the night or anything. Just be aware of your club practices; ask a manager if you can expect a 1099 at the end of the year or any proof of income.
    Also, unless you plan to pay cash for large purchases for the next few years, claiming your income will be useful since you can apply for car loans and mortgages.

    I would say cross the tuition bridge when you get there next March. You may have made so much money that you can cover the tuition no problem and not be on the hook for federal loans. You may have not made diddly squat (I would hope not though!) and get your full aid.

    Even if you make enough to pay off that $15k loan, if you keep your cost of living low and you sort of "ration" your income (so it doesn't get too high), you will still be well under the FAFSA qualifications for aid. They will also almost always offer huge loans to cover "cost of living" (because of course the government wants that 6.8% interest a year!) For example, with my parents paltry income, I claimed about $40k in income last year and was given the Pell grant, plus another $20k in loans (the full amount offerable based on COA at my school), even though I was only short for tuition by about $2k. This might be higher for you depending on your school, I know mine is at the cheap end of the spectrum.

    And in the worst case scenario, you can always take out private loans through banks - not as preferable due to higher interest rates though, and often where many college kids get into trouble since the banks have no mercy when it is time to start paying up. But the option is there in a pinch.
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