<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>No, those aren't means tested benefits. You can still qualify for auto 0 (if income is low enough) if your parents were eligible to file a 1040A or 1040EZ. You can check that here: Parents</a> Eligible to File a 1040A or 1040EZ?</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>
[quote]
Untaxed portions of pensions. Enter your parents' untaxed portions of pensions. This amount can be calculated from IRS Form 1040 (line 16a minus 16b) or 1040A (line 12a minus 12b). Exclude rollovers. If the result is a negative number, enter a zero here.
[/quote]
federal pensions are not reported on lines 12a/12b - jthis is pensions annuities other than federal pensions.</p>
<p>later it says
[quote] Don't include student aid, earned income credit, additional child tax credit, welfare payments, untaxed Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income, Workforce Investment Act educational benefits, combat pay, benefits from flexible spending arrangements (e.g., cafeteria plans), foreign income exclusion or credit for federal tax on special fuels.
[/quote]
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%5B/url%5D">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>