<p>Ive been trying to figure out through online efc calculators and such what my EFC is going to be for this coming year. Heres the information I have gave them all</p>
<p>Parents:
Older parent: 72
Work income: $17000
Untaxed income (SSI) $14,400
No taxes, no assets</p>
<p>Mine:
Work income $17600
Untaxed: 0
Tax $500, no assets</p>
<p>Theres 4 people in my household, 2 going to college. Some calculators say, like finaid.org say 0 efc, sallemae says 0 collegeboard says 2250, college toolkit says 6000, and this site says 7300. All of these were run under the federal methodology. It seems to be a wide band not really narrowing anything. </p>
<p>If they can’t file a 1040A then I would expect it to be closer to 7000 (ish)</p>
<p>Parent income 31,400 less @ $2000 for FICA and state taxes = 29400 less income allowance of @ 21660 = 7740. 7740 x 22% = parent EFC 1702. divided by 2 students = 851 for the parent part.</p>
<p>Student income 17600 less tax 500 = 17100. less @ 1710 for FICA and state taxes = 15840. less protected income allowance 3750 = 12090. 12090 x 50% = 6045 for the student part</p>
<p>6045 + 851 = 6896. (very roughly)</p>
<p>I was not sure what state you live in so I just allowed @ 2-3% for state taxes. Also I don’t know if a worker of your Dad’s age pays FICA on earned income. I included an allowance for that but that may have been wrong.</p>
<p>He does not. Hes not filled out a 1040 because he doesnt have to, something set up on his earned income to where he doesnt have to. Doesnt surprise me that it is high because i made alot this past year. I just got to wondering because some of the calculators said i qualify for automatic 0 EFC, I didnt know if my dads social security was considered a federal means benefit or not, according to the calculators it is, but didnt know for sure.</p>
<p>I think the finaid and the salliemae are correct. With the parent income and eligibility to file a 1040A you should qualify for the automatic 0. The higher EFCs sound like they are not allowing for the automatic 0 EFC. The anomaly is the collegeboard number of 2250 - I can’t imagine where that is coming from. if you do not qualify for the automatic 0 EFC your own income would come into play which would add @ 6000 to the EFC just for the student portion.</p>
<p>Im still waiting for my W-2’s and my dads to come in. Well thats cool that its an automatic 0, Thats what it was when I filled one out in 2006, and nothing much has changed. I filled out the fafsa4caster and it didnt take my income into consideration, or should I say didnt even ask for it.</p>
<p>No they don’t. The formula looks at the parent AGI and other requirements and stops there if the automatic 0 or simplified needs requirements are met.</p>
<p>AGI has to be $30,000 or less for auto 0. The total of income & ss benefits exceeds $30k. Unless there are some adjustments to income that reduce the AGI, auto 0 will not apply.</p>
<p>OOPS … I am not that familiar with how much of ss income is taxable & how much is not taxable. If the taxable portion of SS income + the income from work doesn’t exceed $30k, then auto 0 does apply.</p>
<p>^^^^ - my husband is receiving his SS pension. None of it is taxable until half our other income plus the social security exceeds something called the base ($32k this year). Then more bits of the ss income become taxable the more we exceed the base. The last 2 years none of our ss income has been taxable as we have not exceeded the base, so the SS has not been included in the AGI at all.</p>
<p>It makes my head spin. I kind of understand it but usually run the numbers through turbotax and let them work it out for me ;)</p>
<p>My dad got his SSA-1099 form in the other day, heres the information on it…</p>
<p>Paid by check or deposit: $13,978
Medicare Part B premiums deducted: $1,156
Total Additions: $15,134
Benefits for 2008: $15,134</p>
<p>How do i put this on the FAFSA? Would I put 13,978 or 15,134 for nontaxable income? Would Medicare or SSA as a whole be considered federal means based, aka auto 0 efc?</p>
<p>Report the total benefits of 15134. Go through the steps & it will prompt you for what is needed. If it asks for asset & student financial info, then it won’t be auto 0. Otherwise, you will have a 0 EFC.</p>
<p>Kelsmom - I am confused about the new FAFSA rules. Do we report untaxed SS pension benefits or not? On the instructions it says </p>
<p>
federal pensions are not reported on lines 12a/12b - jthis is pensions annuities other than federal pensions.</p>
<p>later it says
Our SS pension is completely untaxed so I read this as not having to report it. We have reported it in previous years. Am I misunderstanding it? I am confused!</p>
<p>It doesn’t actually make a difference for us as we qualify for the automatic 0 but I want to make sure I do it right.</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom, you are correct: <a href=“http://www.fsa4counselors.ed.gov/clcf/attachments/NT4CM/IIIB%20-%20Applying%20-%20IM.pdf[/url]”>http://www.fsa4counselors.ed.gov/clcf/attachments/NT4CM/IIIB%20-%20Applying%20-%20IM.pdf</a>. Bottom of pg. 1 on the PDF. I had forgotten about this … we briefly discussed it at work, because it will be an issue for us. We have a lot of low income families, and our verification policy is to require a statement of “how you lived on 0 income.” Now that all of these sources of income are being removed from the FAFSA, we will have that many more students we have to ask for this documentation - it’s not that there is 0 income, it’s just that we don’t see any on the FAFSA! We haven’t begun looking at 2009-10 FAFSA’s (heck, we are still trying to get winter '09 verifications finished for our midyear-start students). Thanks for pointing out that change.</p>
<p>OP, just follow the instructions. If it says to include something, do … if it says to exclude it - like excluding untaxed portion of social security benefits - don’t report it.</p>
<p>I love how when the government tries to make something simpler they manage to make it more complicated ;)</p>
<p>So we don’t report it, right?</p>
<p>This could make a vast difference to some people. Our first year of FAFSA we did not qualify for the automatic 0 EFC because of a taxable state tax refund making us ineligible for the 1040a/ez (yes, I’m still wingeing about it 3 FAFSAs later) so the untaxed pension was then included in the formula. Made quite a difference though had a lot of medical bills that almost equalled the pension so in the end had a special circumstances adjustment that wiped most of it out. Not including the federal pension income can make an enormous difference for some.</p>