All I want is a short fafsa with ONE question.
Do you want ONLY an unsubsidized Direct Loan?
And if the answer is YES…the rest does not need to be completed…at all.
I mean really…the unsubsidized loans are not income dependent…anyone can take them who files a fafsa. A simple YES should suffice…no need for all the questions that follow.
For the tax part, it would be easy as one can do DRT directly as tax has been filed long time ago already. Still need to do the asset part though.
More students will be able to qualify, is that true?
Parents will still need to file tax returns and FAFSA and timely.
If they chose to get an extension to file 2015 taxes until October 2016 they will not be able to do DRT then.
It could also mess up asset reporting. If you have money saved to pay December tuition bill for next spring, that money will have to be reported in Oct now versus Jan/Feb when it would have been spent. That combined with the lower asset protection allowance could be problematic.
^^Just wait until Spring semester tuition and room/board or rent is paid before filing FAFSA. You make a good point though.
Oh, thumper … silly you. That would all make too much sense. 
Yes, you need to do everything twice, even if the tax info is the same. And how would ED get its data if they didn’t make you jump through the hoops to get that unsub loan?! Just sayin’ …
ED will be issuing more information to the financial aid community soon. PPY is a good thing, because it helps people get everything together on time. The caution is that it doesn’t necessarily translate to earlier financial aid packages from individual schools.
Ugh-We sold a stock in 2015 for $6k (but zero income tax on the $5k capital gain) and paid some professional school tuition for middle child with the cash not thinking the stock sale would affect our high school junior’s FAFSA for her fall 2017 start date. Now we will be out $3k in state aid since our EFC will be over a $12k cutoff.
Two buttons -
I only want a Direct Loan
I signed up for Selective Service
This will probably mess up a lot of people’s careful planning for one year, but overall I think it’s a good thing since it will largely eliminate the great difficulty many first time applicants have in getting their taxes done in time for FAFSA deadlines (without having to go back later and correct everything). The first time any new deadline/rule like this is instituted, there will be that bummer year for some people. For others, it could be a huge blessing. Depends on how your 2015 income is looking compared to 2016 projections, I guess.
Edit: @Erin’s Dad and @thumper1, this would be a great time to simplify the FAFSA with those two buttons!
It was quite a struggle to get 2014 taxes out and uploaded to idoc last March. I am self employed and there was a delay in a form. Then idoc was SO SLOW. So, using taxes that had been filed months ago would be very helpful!
^ yeah FAFSA was a breeze compared to IDOC. CSS wasn’t a picnic either, but IDOC was the worst.
So here is a question…does one have to use the 2015 tax year for 2017-2018…or can they wait and use 2016?
Our income will be significantly less in 2016…because I’m working this year…and I won’t be next year.
But then…all we really want is the Direct Loan…unsubsidized.
ahh! youre going to fast for me! whats DRT, PJ, idoc, & FWS?
do you think starting 2017+ fafsa will always be based on a year behind?
@thumper1 I think we have no choice but to use 2015 twice from what I have read.
Here is the problem, at least for Federal employees: because of a quirk in the calendar there are 27 pay periods in the 2015 W2s, while 2016 is only 26. That is an extra paycheck that will not be there in 2016.
Also, how will it address assets that will have been reduced paying college bills and other costs? Will this come from 2016?
Assets on each year FAFSA are as of the date of filing. So when the 2017-2018 FAFSA is filed, the assets as of that day will,be what you enter on that FAFSA.
Assets have always been as of the date of filing.
As I think about this, the reason Obama wants to do this is so students find out their aid packages earlier. Is this nit kind of silly for non-rolling admission schools as schools send out aid packages with or after the acceptance letters?
Does anyone know if there will be any changes to the CSS Profile process because of the FAFSA change?
@hs2015mom - according to one of the articles I read, the College Board has not announced anything yet.
@CollegeDadofTwo To address another aspect of the PPY legislation - it is going to help relieve a lot of administrative burden on financial aid offices (regardless of the point of award letters being submitted). For a lot of these families, many will be able to use the Data Retrieval Tool and at the point if or when that student’s file is selected for verification the tax data will be readily available for that aid officer to move forward with verification. We have a lot of families that experience delays with having an accurate award due to filing taxes late or with extensions. With PPY, the verification process should be much smoother, and we won’t have families scrambling all of June and July before school starts to get their tax paperwork together. At this point, I’m sure many schools are uncertain if they actually will be able to get award letter out earlier, as there are state grants organizations that may need to consider changing policies regarding eligibility and submission dates, and other database updates that may have to occur before colleges feel comfortable sending out even an estimated award. 17-18 is definitely going to be an interesting year!
We are actually making financial plan because of that. My wife may cancel all her holiday work schedule this year. The good thing is my D will likely get a better pay summer internship next year and the 2016 income will not be used for any of her financial aid calculation as she will be graduated in 2018.