My parents are unable to file their taxes until around early April due to my dad’s business. However, the deadline to almost all of the schools I am applying to is well before then (specifically, Swarthmore, Tufts, Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth, URochester, Georgetown, Northwestern, Yale, and others). That said, I uploaded 2013 tax data a while ago and obviously this made the required documents show up in IDOC as “not received.” My question(s): how big of a problem is this? Will I be able to extend these deadlines by over a month? Will they be able to use this data to give me a financial aid reward on time or am I screwed in regards to financial aid?
I realize the answers are often school-specific, but any help regarding any of the schools would be greatly appreciated. I have tried calling the schools, but their offices are closed, and it is the day of the deadline. Thank you in advance!
I just filed under the wire! But, when I was worried a few weeks ago about the upcoming deadline, I called few schools and their response was to get them in ASAP. Their goal is to have the FA package and admission decision come together. If you don’t make today’s “deadline” then there is no guarantee that you will have the FA package in time for the 5/1 decision deadline. Most, if not all, of the schools you have listed above aren’t going to run out of money… but you may run out of time. Good luck! I pressed and bugged my accountant until I get everything done today. They said I was the first client with completed taxes. And, they were so surprised by the 3/2 deadline.
Also… a few others in other threads have said they have submitted 2013 in the meantime.
You need to do your financial aid forms using the best possible estimates for 2014. You can use 2013 as a guide, perhaps. But if numbers have increased, you need to up the numbers on your financial aid application forms.
Until you get your taxes completed and submitted to the colleges, any news based financial aid award will be an estimate only. If your family is fine making a matriculation decision using an estimated financial aid award, then no problem. BUT if they need hard numbers, they might want to see if their taxes can be completed a lot sooner just this year.
I know that for the self employed, often an extension is requested until October. But really…your financial aid award will be an estimate until those 2014 tax numbers are provided to the college.
It seems to me the OP’s parents have to get their business’s March 15 taxes completed in order to spit out the forms to use on their personal April 15 taxes. They need to first “close the books” on the business for CY 2014, then send out all 1099s and W-2s by the end of January; and then reconcile the taxes by March 15.
I think IDOC is a document handling system that needs uploads of actual documents (such as completed 1040s), where it would be difficult to put in placeholders. I am interested in the answer to this. It seems like quite a compressed deadline.
If misery loves company, note that the Boarding School deadline (for applicants) was much earlier.
In a nutshell, those schools won’t run out of money, but you’re going to have to make a decision without knowing what your award will be.
It is you who are taking the risk that you will have to make a final decision on a colleges without a final FA package in hand. I have a small business, and I ask my accountant to get them done early in a year when I have to file for FA so we don’t run into this problem. I have had my business taxes for a couple of weeks now, and I started my personal taxes so all I would have to do is plug in the numbers from the business return when it comes in. Your dad is likely making a choice to not push his accountant to get it done sooner (and maybe he didn’t realize he should do that if it is their first year filing for FA).
Thank you all for the help. I’ll probably just have to make a decision on the estimated aid or on no aid at all unfortunately, but I’ll ask my dad again if he can push to get the taxes done sooner.
Explain to him the importance of getting it done ASAP . . . and ask if he’d be willing to file now and amend later. It’s definitely a hassle to do it that way, but it may be the only way for you to get your aid awards on time.
Keep in mind, though, that your aid award will be adjusted after he files his amended return, so whatever he files now should be as accurate an estimate as he can come up with.
I just found out that Cornell will only accept 2014 returns, and that the deadline is strict. So, for a family that cannot complete their taxes in time ( due to business issues beyond our control) our son is completely out of the running for any need- based aid. I wish we knew this earlier. We can’t change the tax issues but could have discussed whether or not it was worth applying. Hopefully the other schools on your list are more flexible.
@Musicmom2015 wow that is definitely very frustrating. I wish I would’ve known earlier as well. This seems ridiculous that there are schools that have that policy.
@Musicmom2015 So I called the financial aid office of Cornell. They said that the deadline is only strict if you’re hoping to receive the financial aid with the admissions decision. However, if you submit the 2014 data later, so long as it is before sometime in May, you can still receive aid. So essentially, you wouldn’t be entirely excluded from aid (so your son, and myself, are not “out of the running” for aid, if we get in that is, we just won’t know how much aid before we must make a decision), but you wouldn’t know until after you would have made a decision regarding whether or not to go. After explaining that, she recommended that I use the financial aid estimate calculator on the Cornell website, which could give an idea of whether or not you feel comfortable accepting an admission decision somewhat blind about exactly what financial aid you are eligible for. Hope that helps! And hopefully Cornell is back on your list of potential schools!
And for those that are curious, Tufts appears to be similar in regards to how they deal with situations like these.
@reecie569 That’s good news, but it contradicts what my husband was told when he called today. He was told if you don’t submit everything by the early March deadline, you will not receive any need based aid. Your version is certainly more reasonable so hopefully it is accurate.
The deadlines are early for new freshmen…and those deadlines have been on the websites for a long time. This is the ONE year when it, if possible, you need to get those taxes rolling as early as possible.
For returning students, the deadlines are later (although still not October).
I know the self employed need to collect and send things, and sometimes need extra time to do so. But really…isn’t it possible to plan ahead for one year and get it done earlier?
@thumper1 It is not a matter of starting early (although your excellent hindsight is greatly appreciated…). My dad’s business cannot have taxes done before a certain time.
@Musicmom2015 I’m betting that when your husband was told that the deadline is strict, they were referring to a financial aid decision coming with the admissions decision. But definitely let me know if you find out otherwise!
But he could file his taxes based on his best guess and then amend them later. That would get the colleges what they need.
It is what my D’s NCP did, he was missing a single form for one job.
@reecie569 I got a little more detail. He was told that yes, if you submit the tax info after the deadline, they will still prepare a package for you BUT you will only be eligible for federal aid and NOT institutional aid. Since we know we won’t qualify for federal aid, I had generalized too much.
And, for some of us it is not possible to get the taxes done in this timeframe. It has nothing to do with planning ahead on our part. It is just not possible given some of the business details not worth explaining here. It’s a shame that the students may have to pay the price for that. The complexity does not necessarily translate into super high income levels.
@Musicmom2015 They didn’t specify which they were referring to when I called - that is definitely concerning. I’ll try to call the office tomorrow to ask about that issue in particular to confirm what you’ve heard or (hopefully) to get a more promising response. I’ll let you know what they tell me!
Federal aid is actually based on the FAFSA. You can receive it by completing the FAFSA any time during the academic year. If eligible, your student would get the Pell Grant, and all students can take the $5500 Direct Loan.
Some schools also offer SEOG, and federal work study, and Perkins Loans, but these are limited funding per campus, and are awarded on a first come, first served basis.