1040a 2013: Fill & Download for Free

As Christian mentions in his answer, you don't get to choose which return to file. If you do not have permanent resident status in the US, your residency status is determined by the substantial presence test - see Chapter 1 of IRS Publication 519 (2013), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens for a detailed explanation. The important fact to consider here is that for the purposes of the substantial presence test you do not count days in which you were present in the United States on an F-1 or J-1 visa. You are considered to be an exempt individual for those days.From the facts you have provided, I cannot tell whether you are a resident alien or a nonresident alien. The key factors here are (a) whether or not you were present in the US prior to September 2012 under a different, nonexempt status and (b) whether you were present in the US on an exempt status in years prior to 2012.Working from the assumption that (a) you were not present in the US at any time prior to 2012, (b) you have not been granted status as a permanent resident, and (c) that you are currently here on an F-1 or J-1 visa, then you are a nonresident alien - and you are required to file Form 1040NR for both 2012 and 2013. (Yes, this means that you filed an incorrect return for 2012.)

I don't know about subsidies, but the other figures are not even close. Download the 2013 1040A tax form instructions from the IRS. On page 67, it says the tax for a single person making $50,000 is $8425.Now look on page 85. It says these are the percentages of that money spent on different items in the US budget:Defense, veterans, & foreign affairs: 24% ($2022)Social security, medicare, other retirement: 38% ($3201)Social programs (such as welfare): 21% ($1769)Interest on the debt: 6% ($506)Corporate subsidies: Not listed, but they probably go under "Physical, human, and community development: 9%" ($758)A key form of "corporate subsidy" is tax breaks, so they don't show up in the budget. To know what they cost you, you'd have to estimate how much of your taxes would have been paid by corporations instead of by you without those tax breaks, and then subtract the amount that corporations did pay instead of you because they were able to do more business because of those tax breaks. For instance, money spent on basic research used to pay back, on average, at least ten times its cost, and IMHO probably closer to 100 times its cost, based on studies done 40 years ago. (The payback is probably smaller now, but the US govt. doesn't really fund basic research anymore except for DoE, DARPA, IARPA, and NOAA.) This means that a tax break to a corporation that was used on basic research would eventually result in all the corporations of America paying an additional amount of taxes equal to the value of the tax break, times the return on that investment across all the corporations in America who use the resulting technology, times the tax rate. That’s the theory behind corporate subsidies.Theoretically, the current level of subsidies was chosen because you'd have to pay higher taxes without the subsidies, except for state subsidies, which are supposed to be a gain to taxpayers in that state but a net loss to the country. But neither of those show up on your federal income tax.TL;DR: Anybody who tells you they know how much corporate subsidies cost you is lying.ADDED: All of the people who disagree fail to understand that taxes are not a zero-sum game. If a company made $1M taxable profits in 2014, and the government is going to reduce their tax rate for 2015 from 15% to 14%, and the company knew that ahead of time, then that tax cut does not (on average) result in the government getting $10,000 less income, because the company will expand their business in anticipation of 1% higher profits. If you don't understand this, you shouldn't be arguing about economics and taxes, you should be learning about them.

You'll need to gather some documents before taking on the FAFSA:Social security cardDriver’s licenseW-2 forms and other records of money earned (by you, not your parents) 2013 Federal Income Tax Return (IRS 1040, 1040A, 1040 EZ)2013 untaxed income recordsCurrent bank statementsAlien registration or permanent resident card (if you are not a U.S. citizen)Your parents’ 2013 Federal Income Tax ReturnThe FAFSA recommends that you fill out the form online, but you can print out a copy if you want to take a break from staring at the screen.If you have unusual circumstances (FAFSA gives the examples of medical bills or unemployment) in your family, contact the financial aid offices at your prospective colleges. They might ask you to document your circumstances.There is no specific income cutoff to qualifying for FAFSA financial aid. A number of factors play into whether you will get money or not, and how much, including number of people in your family, how many are in college, investments, assets, and even state of residence.This is adapted from a guide written by Cynthia Wang (reposted with permission) for a mentorship program formerly ran by Cynthia, me, and Vivienne.