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<p>I’m not a tax expert, but my understanding is that even if a family can legally take certain tax deductions colleges may add those totals back in when determining income for financial aid purposes. According to the Expat’s Guide to US Taxes, allowances for education are counted as earned income on tax returns. So if your dad is paid $100k and his company pays $80k for your boarding school, his total earned income is $180k, not $100k. But check with financial experts to be sure.</p>
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A lot of companies will include the cost of the international schooling, housing, etc. on the employee’s W-2.</p>
<p>The dad claimed $70k income on his taxes but “counted out expenses the company pays for,” @GMTplus7. How does the student know if any of those will be added back in by the college? Is it possible the $70k already includes the boarding school costs?</p>
<p>Your income is right on the line where generous schools will give you a lot of aid with a family that size. The thing is we don’t know if your Dad has extra benefits that will be added in. If the company pays for something, then that means his income doesn’t have to go toward that necessity, you see? So some schools will adjust for that. I don’t know that they would consider the cost of your school or not as that seems unavoidable, depending where you are.</p>
<p>I don’t know how overseas people figure that out ahead to know what will be feasible schools that are affordable. Because some schools, like Wellesley I’m pretty sure, don’t give merit aid, they only give need aid. Others, like Mt Holyoke for instance does give merit, I’m pretty sure as it is part of the NPC. How do overseas kids know? Can they get advised in advance by any of these schools if they submit data?</p>
<p>Sorry I didn’t respond until now. We work for the US government overseas and we have been trying to figure out how all of those untaxed benefits affect EFC. Basically, after running many NPCs I believe we will come out full pay no matter how wealthy or generous a school because it is hard to show need in light of all of these benefits. At the same time, these benefits are what makes it worth doing what we do. Still, $60000 plus a year is out of reach for us and our daughter has chosen to apply to schools that offer merit, with the exception of one at which she got deferred. So far she has received enough merit at two publics OIST, we are waiting waiting to hear about a third for scholarship, and has three RD privates with merit potential to wait for. </p>
<p>I meant OOS </p>
<p>@austinmshauri @GMTplus7</p>
<p>Let me clarify a few things. My dad’s income is 70K/year - its actually quite low as he’s a senior employee and works in a lucrative field (finance). The reason it’s low (I asked my mom) is because my dad’s company covers a lot of our expenses so if they weren’t covering those expenses my dads income would be a lot higher. I think all of you are under the assumption that my most of our expenses our being paid and that my dad’s is still getting the amount of income he would get if those expenses weren’t being paid for. Well as I pointed out its not - my dad’s company cuts out expenses from incomes and thus that lowers employees incomes accordingly. </p>
<p>So if like you said colleges are going to add in our international school tuition when calculating EFC that can’t doesn’t make sense as my siblings and I’s international (not boarding) school tuition is 56K/year - 80% of my dad’s income, my dad pays 11K of the fees and he did include the amount HE pays in the NPC. Plus, if colleges add that expense to their calculations, my dad wouldn’t be able to afford anything - we’d practically be living in poverty as that would leave us with around 14K/year to live on. </p>
<p>Plus, I think I shouldn’t really be questioning the value we got as my dad is a chartered accountant (or he used to work as one not anymore) - aren’t accountants good at this sort of stuff - so the income and whatever other values my dad put into the NPC and tax forms could have been correct for all we know. My original question was why the NPC is coming up with a EFC that is lower than what my dad can pay. </p>
<p>@Brownparent I get what you mean. But my dad pays partially, my dad’s company doesn’t completely pay for everything - they pay part of our school fees (which my dad can’t pay our of his pocket, just way too expensive), rent etc. So the income my dad input into the NPC’s includes all the expenses my dad partially pays (NOTHING is fully payed by my dad’s company). </p>
<p>And yah, going to a private school is unavoidable because of where I live, the public education where I live is atrocious. If I was back in the US, I’d definitely be attending a public school, no doubt. </p>
<p>@NorthernMom61 If you don’t mind me asking, when you were calculating your daughter’s EFC, did you add the benefits you receive onto your total income? Or is that the wrong thing to do? </p>
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<p>Colleges may view his income as higher BECAUSE the company is covering those expenses. They may calculate his income and benefits as $70k cash, PLUS the value of the high school tuition (so $126k), PLUS the rent they pay for your family, PLUS whatever else the company pays for as part of your dad’s total compensation package. You’d have to ask the schools directly to be sure.</p>
<p>Is it $56k tuition total for you and your siblings, or $56k for each student?</p>
<p>@kelsmom may know. I think she works in financial aid. </p>
<p>You should double check on your eligibility to claim Virginia residency. It is not automatic, it is based on the totality of the circumstances. The fact that your family has actually been living in another country does raise the question of whether domicile was legally established, and whether the state might consider it to have since been abandoned. See <a href=“http://www.schev.edu/Students/VAdomicileguidelines.asp”>http://www.schev.edu/Students/VAdomicileguidelines.asp</a> for the law on the matter, but it will probably come down to your parents convincing the school that they established residency and always intended to return to Virginia when the overseas work assignment concludes.</p>
<p>@austinmshauri Oh, that can’t be good for me as I’ll probably won’t get as much aid as I need. Okay so does that mean colleges will know that my dad’s company pays 70-75% of tuition? Will they lower my aid accordingly? So say my EFC turns out to be $25000, my dad will only have to pay around (max) $6250 himself - will colleges know that he only has to pay the amount I stated and raise our EFC even more or will that not be taken into consideration? </p>
<p>@Madison85 It’s the total school tuition of my siblings and I. 20K for me and 36K for my three siblings. </p>
<p>@FCCDAD I emailed W&M a month ago and informed them briefly of our family situation - that we live abroad for work purposes but prior to leaving Virginia we were residents (domicile) and that we didn’t establish and aren’t isn’t planning on establishing domicile in any other country. </p>
<p>This is what the domicile officer quoted from the code of Virginia ‘‘a domiciliary of Virginia can take temporary leaves of absences from the Commonwealth and still retain their Virginia domicile as long as they do not establish domicile anywhere else and their intent is to remain in the Commonwealth indefinitely’’. <- Describes our family’s situation, so there is a high chance that I’ll be considered an instate application for admission and tuition purposes. And if they ask my dad for proof of intent to return to the Commonwealth permanently we have plenty of evidence - my dad is going to buy us a house sometime in the next 2-3 years for us to live in, plus my dad’s job ends when he turns 60 (so in 3 years, but he said he’ll extend his work time for 2 or so more years because of my sibling’s schooling) so we will have to return to the U.S (Virginia) regardless as we’ll lose our residency in the country we currently reside in. And Virginia is the only place my parents are planning to move to as a) We aren’t citizens of any other country b) there is a civil war going on in my home country that doesn’t look like will end anytime soon so my parents won’t be going there - where else would they go? I think that’s enough evidence that my parents will definitely be returning to Virginia sometime in the next 3-5 years. </p>
<p>A temporary absence is not 3-5 years (plus however long you’ve been gone until now). I doubt Va will grant you residence status. What is your ‘home country’? Are you not a US citizen? We haven’t had a civil war since the 1860’s.</p>
<p>@twoinanddone My dad has worked abroad for around 17 years. Are you sure that there is no chance of getting residency? I should clarify that I personally haven’t lived in Virginia for long (a couple of months) as I lived with my mother in Europe (born there and lived there for 3 years - but I’m not a citizen of that country - my mom still has her permit to live there (she was a refugee) and since my sister and I were born there, we’re registered under her and thus have living permits too) - my dad however, lived in Virginia for around 18-20 years (also lived there when my mother, sister and I lived in Europe, does that lower my chances even more? </p>
<p>I’m Somali but I’m also a U.S citizen. </p>
<p>Oh boy pink, you have a lot of complications. This is going to cause a great deal of uncertainty until you have outcomes so plan accordingly, I’d say and make sure you have some colleges you can afford no matter. I hope this all works out for you and you get more advice. Please remember to come back and share outcomes so we can help others in the future too. </p>
<p>oh, if somehow the calculations are correct, the school is giving aid based on a formula they think is industry practice and reasonable to them, not on what your dad is willing to come up with. For some people this will work out more of a hardship and some people will get a bit more of a break sometimes.</p>
<p>I would definitely not plan on residency in VA. We had friends who during their daughter’s sr yr of high school were transferred from VA to NC. They had lived in VA for yrs and their dd had been dual enrolled in the local CC for 2. Their house was on the market, but it had not sold. The family did move to a rental house in NC. </p>
<p>They had thought their dd would be in state in VA. She was not. She wasn’t instate in NC either. She was caught in a no home state bind. </p>
<p>It happens to people just moving out of the state for a few months. You would want confirmation in writing that living abroad basically your entire life still grants you in state status. I am going to suspect not.</p>
<p>@pink997, I have run NPCs both ways. There is a spot where you enter untaxed benefits on many of them. (We work for the US Govt. so we do have to pay income taxes). We live in a very high cost of living country and we get a housing allowance and a cost of living adjustment which both fluctuate with the currency exchange rates. My husband and I both work and our salaries are pretty average by US standards, but it is these added, untaxed benefits that make living here worthwhile for us–aside from the incredible experience that it has been to live overseas. The dollar amount that we get for housing and cost of living is “money in money out” meaning that a bill paying service draws from our account to pay our housing bills and expenses with this money–and we get exact amounts for these expenses. So it isn’t “spendable” cash so to speak, but we don’t have to use our salary for housing expenses unless we go over–say for electricity, gas or whatever. In our case, the actual dollar amount is disgustingly high as the cost of living here is disgustingly high, even though our actual apartment is a little larger than most in the area but very basic by American standards. I have no way of knowing if the school would adjust the dollar amount downward, say to the average cost of living per person in the USA or not. All I know is that when I add this added benefit into the NPC we ALWAYS come back as full pay. In fact, when I include this benefit our EFC exceeds the full COA by quite a bit even though we know that we can’t afford a $60,000+/year school. If I leave the benefit off or adjust the total amount downward to reflect an average cost of living in the USA, we are coming back with about 1/2 to 2/3 COA as our EFC, depending on the private school I am looking at. </p>
<p>@pink997 Since your dad’s employer is paying $56k per year for K-12 school costs for you and siblings, is there any chance the employer would pay some of your college cost of attendence?</p>
<p>@pink997 What you described doesn’t sound like plenty of evidence - that is just intent - how do you prove intent? </p>
<p>Agree with other poster that several years does not sound like it meets the definition of temporary absence from Virginia.</p>
<p>Your dad left VA 18-20 years ago, and you think the state of VA is going to grant u in-state status on the premise that he INTENDS to move to VA in 3-5 years, after u have ALREADY started college? Anyone can intend anything.
FYI. Residency requirements for VA:
<a href=“http://www.schev.edu/Students/VAdomicileguidelines.asp”>http://www.schev.edu/Students/VAdomicileguidelines.asp</a></p>
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The reason the NPC is coming up w a EFC lower than what your dad can pay is that the calculation is assuming that you dad is paying for housing & other living expenses out of that $70k cash compensation, like a typical household would.</p>
<p>The school fee, local housing, local expenses paid by your father’s employer is non cash income:
<a href=“http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Foreign-Earned-Income-Exclusion---What-is-Foreign-Earned-Income”>http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Foreign-Earned-Income-Exclusion---What-is-Foreign-Earned-Income</a>
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Noncash Income
In addition to the types of earned income listed, certain noncash income and allowances or reimbursements are considered earned income. The fair market value of property or facilities provided to you by your employer in the form of lodging, meals, or use of a car is earned income.
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I know of no employer in the world that pays for college for expatriate kids. Flights to visit their parents working overseas, yes. College, no.</p>
<p>Question: Who is paying income taxes to the host-country? Your dad? Or your dad’s employer? Is that $70k he’s earning net of local taxes?</p>