My question is, aside from filed taxes, once a student has an FA offer in hand will the school be asking for anymore documents?
All my back statements are online as well as other things they could possibly ask for.
Will they want anything else? If they do, I’d like to get started early.
They will most likely as for a copy of your IRS transcript
If a school is going to be asking for tax returns, they will want to see them before a final FA offer is made.
Ok, so aside from current filed taxes I don’t need to have anything else?
There may not be a general answer that applies to all of the thousands of colleges and universities - is that what you want? @HailuMu
Sure but if generally nothing more than taxes are needed, I’ll just wait until anything else is asked for. 
Thanks!!
Each school will have their own requirement as to what is necessary before an offer of need-based financial aid is finalized. Check the financial aid web page of whatever school(s) you are interested in.
Check your email regularly in case they contact you.
While they will use the info from the IRS data retrieval tool/ tax information many schools are now requesting a copy of the TIS transcript before the actually disburse or credit any monies
@sybbie719 I have no idea what a TIS transcript is, please explain
Thank you
Will there be a verification process? Not sure I remember it right…I recalled reading sometimes colleges changed the FA package after the verification process and very late in the process, then students found themselves stuck with a higher EFC and couldn’t get into another college…is it common for the verification process completed late in the process?
It was common for the FAFSA to go in with estimated amounts, and then when the family updated with filed tax information for there to be an adjustment or a verification. This could have happened any time during the spring, from FAFSA filing to awards going out. Now that the tax information is prior/prior, the verification should happen earlier but there is no guarantee. The financial aid offices still need manpower, and some things, like getting the tax transcript, still take time. In fact, up until 2 years ago you could get them by email, but now they can only be obtained by US mail, so that slows things down by about 2 weeks.
I don’t think there will be a noticeable difference in the timing of FA awards. There may be a difference in the early EFCs as they will be based on filed taxes, not estimates.
@twoinanddone therefore will it be beneficial to ask for the tax transcript now?
One school has sent us what we needed for verification. I had to upload my 2015 tax return and corresponding W2. Very straight forward and not a hassle since I already had them scanned.
I was definitely overthinking it.