Have you not chosen your school yet? Decline the other schools and stop the FA process.
No, we have not decided yet. I think it is too late now, I checked fafsa and saw that it is processing and the changes came from colleges. My concern is that this change is being sent to other colleges and is affecting DD’s financial aid offers.
Have you called the OTHER colleges financial aid offices to see if they have everything they need to exclude the rollover from your income?
If not…do that NOW.
None of us here can answer for the colleges…so CALL THEM.
Yes, I did. For the college that messed up the fafsa, I left voice messages after voice messages. I emailed after emailed. They initially told me they would revise the package today (which I don’t care as I just wanted them to fix fafsa and they are evasive in responding anything related to what they did with fafsa)
for other colleges except the one I mentioned which checked with me on rollover, they told me that they are waiting for the document on the portal which is DD’s non-filing verification from IRS. The appointment with iRS is next week.
I just received a mail from fafsa that they are sending the “revised” information to the colleges. I hope I am not seeing a bunch of letters from colleges that they now decide DD’s EFC to be over $120K…
BTW, can I sue them? I am just upset… when they responded they would tell me that they are supposed to tell fafsa that if they found the information to be incorrect. I have to tell them how can they know the information is incorrect if they do not ask me, the rollover is a typical example…they can revise their offer, but they have no right to update fafsa without confirming with me…
If the rollover was a direct rollover, the 1099R should indicate that.
I don’t know why they think they need to change the FAFSA to include an IRA withdrawal, that is supposed to be excluded from income, and what did they mean, they were reporting this to the IRS?
I assume you reported the IRA withdrawal and rollover from the 1099R on your tax return.
Did any schools send a financial aid package based on the AGI (without rollover), or are they all waiting for the non filing letter?
No you can’t sue them. Put that right out of your head.
You need to contact ALL of your daughter’s colleges…and make sure they have all of the info they need regarding the rollover. You can be honest, and say some other college added back in your rollover money as income and you are concerned others will,do,the same.
The colleges will tell you what they have, and what they will do…we can’t do that.
I would call or email next week and talk to a supervisor to see if they have received the 1099 R.
Ask them to make another correction to the FAFSA, to remove the rollover income.
How did the tax transcript list the rollover?
Once your new fafsa processes…you need to print it out…and compare it LINE BY LINE with the previously submitted one.
When you call the schools, do not leave a voice mail…stay ON the line and wait for a person.
The problem with contacting all the colleges is that they told me they are just waiting for the information on the portal which is the verification letter from IRS… Anyway, one of the colleges told me I can change it back (but this same college also initially told me colleges cannot make changes on fafsa), therefore I just did, I don’t know the implication of me changing the information back.
@mommdc I do not know the impact of talking to the supervisor as I left 4 voice messages in the last 36 hours and email to the whole group. I asked that they make the correction to FAFSA today, they didn’t answer, I asked them what they changed on my daughter’s fafsa, they didn’t respond. I found out they indeed added the rollover after I logged onto fafsa…the rollover was listed under total pension and annuities, but it is larger than my tax income… they suspected it a rollover as they put in the offer letter that it may be a rollover, but as I said the whole thing annoys me was that they should have checked with me…and it further frustrates me was when I communicated with them they would say they are required to update fafsa, but I told them they should have asked me to provide them the verification and they didn’t, in fact, when I called them a few weeks ago, they said that they won’t review the document until mid-May after my DD enrolls as they did not want to waste my time to send them the information if my daughter does not enroll. (to be honest, I think they do not want to waste their time)
Also…remember…you filed your FAFSA LATE…in your words…very late. This didn’t give the colleges much time…or you…to,reconcile any differences between your FAFSA, tax return, tax transcript etc.
Look, assuming OP DID call it a “rollover” on a copy of her IRS transcript, added that annotation per IRS rules, does not mean the college will accept that without the 1099R. Too much potential for fraud. So send the dang colleges your 1099R. Put the energy into the fix, not the outrage.
Good chance the college that flagged this and notified Fafsa will now revise again with Fafsa, show the correction, IF you sent them a 1099R coded in Box 7 with a “G,” the indicator of direct transfer of the funds.
Heads up: per the general policies, if a parent or student ticks them off sufficiently, they can cut off contact, are allowed to. NO, a college does not have to contact you to verify each detail. As long as they are following proper policies, their own and for all colleges using Fafsa.
“they suspected it a rollover as they put in the offer letter that it may be a rollover…” But until you provide the proof, they do not have to take you at your word.
Next time, either don’t put the cart before the horse (sending info, when they said they don’t need it til May) AND if another college asked for addl info, include that with anything sent to others.
Well I don’t understand either why they said they won’t look at the info until after May 1. How are you supposed to get an aid award?
@annamom also said she sent them the 1099 R right away.
That’s why I said to follow up and see if they got it.
But after all the run around with them, and not talking to you or answering your questions, I might just cut my losses and delete that school from the FAFSA so they can’t cause any more trouble.
Where is your D going? Does she have it narrowed down, and is the school affordable with the aid award you got, if they sent one, or from the net price calculator?
The initial offer may have been conditional, contingent upon a later review or random checks, when they come up for air. Not fixed, at the time the admit offer (and initial FA pkg) went out. Not uncommon. The whole verification thing is about that.
The FAFSA is a form that contains information. The federal processor … a computer … processes the initial FAFSA info, as well as any info that is sent to it by the student and/or schools. Sometimes schools make changes in such a way that all schools listed on that particular FAFSA transaction receive the changes, other times the changes are made in such a way that only the school that makes the changes receives the updated FAFSA.
The student can’t notify FAFSA that there was a rollover - FAFSA doesn’t care; only the school can make the necessary change to exclude a rollover. The tax transcript does not contain a rollover notation, nor does the DRT. You have to send the 1099R to the schools - with an explanation. You should not change a FAFSA after you did the DRT, because you will be required to send in a tax transcript even if you did the DRT (because you changed elements of the DRT).
Schools would like to see the IRA rollover issue resolved more easily, but apparently it doesn’t occur often enough for it to be a programming priority for Federal Student Aid (there are plenty bigger fish for them to fry).
@annamom, I am not sure I would be jumping to correct your FAFSA if you insisted I do it today. Do you think yours is the only issue on that financial aid office’s plate? Please be realistic. Schools are in the middle of finishing up fall aid, but they have to get summer aid ready … and summer aid has to be manually packaged (it’s a pain).
@kelsmom I understand the college may be busy…However, the reason I asked them to correct it today was because they made the change without asking me for any document…it was how it happens with this college. I applied fafsa late (I knew it was my mistake), then I (the parent) received offers from various colleges, I immediately logged onto the portals and followed up to provide the documents as I understood the offers are conditioned for me providing them the documents… I knew I would be picked for verification… However, for this particular college, there was nothing in the portal that required me to submit documents, I was surprised, emailed and called them, they told me they would only ask for verification in mid-May after the student enrolls as they did not want to waste my time when the child did not enroll (I think they did not want to do any work until the child enrolls)… I sent them the IRS transcript anyway as I did not use the IRS tool…I never thought about the rollover, as I thought it was obviously not income and I didn’t enter it in fafsa (when I updated to correct their mistake, I saw that fafsa specfically asked to exclude rollover)… Then yesterday, I suddenly saw them sent me the revised offer and then they mentioned they would report to fafsa on the change of income, they even wrote on the offer letter that the amount may be due to the rollover… I am upset as they could have contacted me to ask me to provide them the documents, they didn’t, they wrote that they thought it was a rollover, but they changed it anyway. I wanted them to correct today because next week is the last week in April, their mistake may trigger other colleges to “revise” their offers and I will spend the next week explaining to the colleges to revise the “revised” offers. They made the mistake which could affect my daughter, I think they have the obligation to correct the mistake as soon as possible.
There was nothing in the portal, yet, because they told you there likely wouldn’t be before May.
They told you.
But you jumped. That triggered the process. You could have waited. Or included the 1099 with the transcript you sent.
Now you want them to stop cold and respond to you.
Yes it may affect other colleges if they now get the revised info from Fafsa. Yes, we get you are annoyed.
Yes, we suggest you get on to fixing this.
the above was exactly my earlier question as I found it odd that there was nothing in the portal for us to provide documentation.
DD received several offers from other colleges and they are affordable… I was able to post on how to help her to narrow down the search and have been following on other posts on how others made the decision…
I saw nothing wrong with it LOL…as I did not us DRT tool, I think I did the right thing to send them the tax transcript when I first approached them, and asked them why I didn’t see anything on the portal. I assume verification includes asking questions…I assumed a financial aid officer would know that it was a rollover given the number is larger than my AGI…and I assumed that a financial aid officer would ask the question if they suspect it was a rollover (as they wrote on the offer letter that it may be a rollover, another college asked), I guess I gave too many credits and assumed too much for someone who was hired as a financial aid officer.
It is a decent thing to do if they could start cold to just change DD"s fafsa without verifying with me and caused me to contact other colleges to fix their incorrect information.
yes, I did and even just updated fafsa myself. I am prepared to meet with them or the University President.
I think it is a lesson learned.
The university president is NOT going to meet with you over this issue. So put that right where filing a lawsuit belongs…off the table.
And really…it is very possible,this WHOLE verification and correction process could,have been completed months go IF you had submitted your financial aid pplication forms in a timely manner.
At this point, you don’t really even care about this particular college.
Did you call,the other colleges today to explain that another college had included a rollover and mistaken,y corrected your FAFSA? And did you ask those OTHER colleges if there is any additional documentation you need to provide to them to prove your case?
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
The OP has gotten some good advice, but now, this thread is just going in circles. Closing.