The 2017-2018 FAFSA is supposed to be based on 2015’s income and tax information, but they may require 2016’s income and tax information for verification for the 2017-2018 school year. I initially thought that this change would benefit me (my income is going to double in 2016, so I was excited to have my FAFSA still based on 2015). However, if they use 2016’s income for verification, then I will be pretty screwed. I am already taking out lots of loans to support myself, and the financial aid I receive is very helpful. However, if I begin working more and I get reduced aid… then what is the point in working extra hours? It looks like my EFC will jump to 5000, compared to about 1000 for this year. I am an independent student with no dependents, no parents, etc., so I have to pay for my own health insurance, food, living costs, etc.
Does anyone know anything more about what will happen in 2017-2018? If I can work more hours and have everything based off my 2015 tax return, then I will. Otherwise, it is not worth working more and sacrificing my grades. Survival is hard enough as it is
“I would think that at some point in the process, you would most likely need 2016 tax information as well…”
As a guess coming from one school’s financial aid office, not something I would hang my hat on at this point in time, and in any event the idea would appear to defeat the whole purpose of the change to prior-prior year reporting.
That’s what I thought as well. But, at the same time, it does make sense to use 2016’s income for verification. After all, people who will be in their senior year of college could essentially make as much as they want this year, though that’s quite difficult to do as a full-time student. I really wish the Department of Education would release more information to us.
I’m not sure this is all firm yet…but the 2017-2018 school year will be the transition year…using prior prior tax year info…2015. After that…all FAFSA forms will become available in October instead of January, and will use prior prior tax year information.
So, pretty much, no one really knows what will happen yet. It’s all speculation… typically, verification goes by the previous year’s tax information. As such, implementing prior-prior tax information, you’d think that verification would also go by what the FAFSA requires (prior-prior year).
That’s been the case for years under the current (soon to be gone) system. As soon as a student was halfway through their junior year (December 31) and on track to graduate on time, it didn’t matter how much they made, because the last FAFSA income reporting period had just ended.
Well, yeah, because “verifying” information implies that you’re checking on numbers that you already have. You can’t verify 2016 income information with 2017 income information. Not same-same.
@kingpin2 when your FAFSA is verified…it is to verify that what you put on it really is the same as what is on your tax return. So…if they are using 2016 tax return information on the FAFSA…they would,want to verify that 2016 tax return information was accurately entered…has nothing to do,with 2017!
Again… this would defeat the whole purpose of switching to prior-prior year reporting. I don’t see it happening. It would make the process even more drawn out, burdensome and uncertain than it is now.
@thumper1 Yes… but we are supposedly using 2015’s information, correct? I am thrown off by VCU indicating that 2016’s tax return will be used for verification… and 2015’s tax return for the FAFSA. By what you just said, it would make no sense to use 2016’s information to verify the 2015 tax information on the FAFSA.
I think the VCU email screenshot that you linked to is talking about possibly using 2016 tax information to verify the 2017-2018 FAFSA (“the academic year after next”), and I don’t think they know what they’re talking about.
@BelknapPoint And, the 2017-2018 FAFSA would correspond with the 2018-2019 school year? I explicitly asked them in my email if 2016’s tax return would be required for the 2017-2018 school year in addition to 2015’s tax return. But yes, I have heard that the VCU Financial Aid Office leaves everyone confused.
I will begin by saying that I cannot speak for any other school and what that school may determine as an internal policy. Now … I went to the Federal Student Aid training session in December. It was very clear to me that the mandate is to use the prior-prior year income on the FAFSA for determining federal aid eligibility. This means that 2015 income will be used for 2017-2018. If an individual school determines it wants to use 2016 income during its verification process for some reason, that school can do that. But it is NOT required by the Department of Education, meaning it would not be the rule. The new base year is prior-prior year, so that is the year that is collected on the FAFSA, and that is the year that must be verified if a student is selected for verification. Again, if a SCHOOL wants to ask for 2016, they can do that … but the feds aren’t saying they have to. There was much discussion about the fact that schools would be inundated with requests for Professional Judgment, folks wanting to use 2016 because it’s less … and the overwhelming groans I heard in the audience were not an indication that many schools were wanting to do that. Schools recognize the reason for the move to prior-prior, making it easier for families to apply for aid … most are not going to want to make it harder for them.
How could they use 2016 taxes to verify the 2015 figures? The FAFSA question will be 'Enter income from 2015 Form 1040, line 7" Well, it’s NOT going to match the 2016 figures. They can verify other things as of the date of filing in 2016 (other kids in school, assets) but unless they ask specifically how much you made in 2016, they can’t ‘verify’ something that hasn’t even closed yet, 2016 income, if you complete FAFSA in Oct 2016. The whole purpose is to stop having people estimate and then having the FA office prepare a package, only to have to redo it because the estimate wasn’t accurate. Why move everything forward 3 months only to have to verify with new information after the next year’s taxes are filed? That would pretty much assure that every single FA package would have to be recalculated as not many people have the exact same tax return 2 years in a row.
No. The 2017-2018 FAFSA is for academic year 2017-2018. It will be the first FAFSA to use prior-prior year information, and is “the academic year after next.” The current academic year is 2015-2016. The next academic year is 2016-2017. The academic year after next is 2017-2018.
They wouldn’t be able to use 2016 to verify what is on the FAFSA. They could choose to collect 2016 to determine institutional aid, I guess, and perhaps they may have other reasons … I can’t comment on what any other school wants to do with its internal policies. I don’t really understand their communication, but again … I don’t work there … so …
@kelsmom That makes a lot of sense. I don’t think VCU, a school of 30,000 students, would do more than what is required by the Department of Education. It already takes students 1-2 weeks just to get a response from VCU’s Fin Aid Office. What you said has given me more hope to ignore what their email said. The person who wrote the email didn’t really know much either, and indicated that they were waiting on more information from the Dept of Edu. You appear to be more educated than they are…
@BelknapPoint Sorry, I misread what you wrote and thought you said they’d use 2016’s income for 2017-2018, but you were suggesting that they didn’t know what they were talking about. My bad.
Now, if a college did choose to do that, it wouldn’t impact the Pell Grant, correct? (Assuming that Pell goes by federal regulations)
