Are CSS Profile and noncustodial profile live? It appears to be letting me sign up and start a form for 2017-18 but I thought it was supposed to open Oct. 1 (along with FAFSA). Sorry if this is a dumb question.
I don’t think they have historically opened at the same time. I assume it is open if you see the 2017-18 version.
Yes, the 2017-2018 Profile opened a week early. Here are some differences I’ve noticed from previous years:
-Obviously, the major difference is that prior-prior year income and tax information is now being used, which means that 2015 numbers will be used for the second year in a row. Previously, Profile asked about three years worth of financials – the prior year (or base year), with detailed questions regarding income and taxes (section PI); the year before that, with a few questions about income and benefits (section PP); and the year after the base year, with a few questions about expected income and benefits (section PF). Starting with the 2017-2018 Profile, three years worth of information is still asked about, but now the base year is the earliest of those three years (still labeled section PI), which for the 2017-2018 Profile is 2015. Next there are a few questions about the following year’s, or “recent” income and benefits (section PR), meaning 2016 for the 2017-2018 Profile. Finally, there are a few questions asking about anticipated income and benefits for the next year, which is 2017 for the 2017-2018 Profile (section PF).
-Before this year, only Health Savings Account contributions that appeared as deductions on a tax form were reported in questions that asked about untaxed income and benefits for the year before the base year and the year after the base year; normal before tax deductions from an employee pay check as part of a cafeteria plan were ignored. Now, all HSA contributions for non-base years need to be reported as untaxed income/benefit (questions PR-115 and PF-115).
-In previous years, the total value of the student’s qualified retirement accounts was reported as of December 31 of the base year (question SA-105). Now, this value is reported as of the day that the form is completed.
Can you confirm the new sections below?
Especially the dates, and also the entire description?
Parents’ Data (PD)
Parents’ 2015 Income & Benefits (PI)
Parents’ 2016 Income & Benefits (PR)
Parents’ 2017 Expected Income & Benefits (PF)
Parents’ Assets (PA) (2105 and 2016 questions)
Parents’ Expenses (PE) (2105 and 2016 questions)
Student’s Data (SD) (2016-2017 school year questions?)
Student’s 2015 Income and Benefits (SI)
Student’s Expected Resources for 2017-18(SR)
Student’s Assets (SA)
Family Member Listing Parents’ Household (FM)
Information About Noncustodial Parent (NP)
NP-145A -> 2016-17 contribution?
Please confirm the dates, I think maybe not only the 2 sections you mentioned have changed.
Here you go, with corrections/additions in italics:
Parents’ Data (PD)
Parents’ Household Information (PH) *
Parents’ 2015 Income & Benefits (PI)
Parents’ 2016 Recent Income & Benefits (PR)
Parents’ 2017 Anticipated Income & Benefits (PF)
Parents’ Assets (PA) I
Parents’ Expenses (PE) (2105 and 2016 questions)
Student’s Data (SD) I*
Student’s 2015 Income and Benefits (SI)
Student’s Expected Resources for 2017-18(SR)
Student’s Assets (SA)
Family Member Listing - Parents’ Household (FM)
Explanations/Special Circumstances (ES)
I can’t comment about any noncustodial parent questions or information, as I don’t see any of that.
The 2017-2018 FAFSA is also available now, at least in PDF format.
https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1718/pdf/PdfFafsa17-18.pdf
It doesn’t look like anything has changed from 2016-2017, so all the same 2015 income and tax numbers will be used again, and the only updated financial numbers will be parent and student asset information. A very easy form to complete if you did it last year and kept a copy!
Be advised that the PDF form linked to above is a bit glitchy, so it may be taken down to fix – the form automatically adds a comma when numbers four digits or longer are entered, even when a year is being entered. So, if you want to enter 1992 (say, for the year that the parents were married), it will look like this: 1,99
So I completed the form online and submitted it to my colleges I’m applying to, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t ask me for my parents’ SS numbers. Is that a glitch in the form? Did I do something wrong and is there something I need to correct?
Are you asking about the Profile? I don’t believe that the Profile asks for parent SSNs.
Oh wow ignore my comment @Belknap. I misread.