<p>My family has barely any savings. Our 2010 income was 20,000 roughly. But with the money we took out of the retirement it made our income 50,000. The EFC fafsa gave me was 37,000...far more than we can afford. I just submitted the fafsa today so maybe in the processed email i should i receive in 3-5 days they will have adjusted it to take into consideration this is retirement money and there isn't any more of where that came from?
Help please.</p>
<p>Print out the entire FAFSA formula, and work through it on paper. You should be able to identify where you went wrong. <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf</a> Then login to the FAFSA website, and correct your figures.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Sounds like you put in an extra 0 somewhere or entered some number on the wrong line. Check your numbers.</p>
<p>Don’t wait until the processed numbers come…they probably won’t be different because the problem is probably a wrongly inputted number. Check the amount you put for savings. Did you put in extra 0’s?</p>
<p>The number is definitely wrong, BUT, even though taking money bout of a retirement account was a one time event, it will count for this year’s aid.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I understand why it would count as income 2college? It was savings that they spent, not income from some outside source, even though they probably had to pay taxes on it if they hadn’t when it was saved.</p>
<p>Taking money out of retirement generates a 1099, no? Maybe it depends on how and the circumstances. But 1099 amounts get included in AGI.
Our family earns more than 50k and our EFC is less than 37k. Am guessing, as above, that you made some error- this finaid stuff drives all of us wacky. Double check you didn’t list something not meant to be reported. Retirement is generally protected, if it conforms to guidelines. Not if it’s savings or an investment you personally earmarked for retirement. And, not if you converted it to cash in hand. </p>
<p>Totally agree you should follow the above link and do it by hand- this is what I had to do and it brought my EFC down from what the Fafsa calculator gave.</p>
<p>Just a thought but double check that you entered the parent info in the parent section and the student info in the student section and did’nt accidentally list the parent info in the student section.</p>
<p>Good point! ^^^</p>
<p>There clearly is a mistake unless the OP hasn’t included some pertinent info in the post…such as owning additional properties or such.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. I’m going to calculate it by hand and see what I come up with. And no, we do not own any other land besides our house which is on a small lot.</p>
<p>
Retirement income from tax deferred retirement savings does count as income for both taxes and FAFSA. My husband is retired and we live on a combination of withdrawals from his 401k and his SS pension. His 401k account is a tax deferred savings account and as such the withdrawals are taxable income, are included in the AGI, are reported on FAFSA, and are used in calculating the EFC. The SS pension is a combination of not taxable and taxable (the amount that is taxable depends on the total of our other income). The taxable part is included in the AGI and reported on FAFSA. The nontaxable part is not reported on FAFSA. </p>
<p>The EFC sounds high for the total income the OP indicated though. You need to check for errors.</p>
<p>There is no way of reflecting on FAFSA that the retirement withdrawal was a one off thing. As far as FAFSA is concerned, it is income. But, you can ask your school if they will do a professional judgement review to adjust FAFSA. These reviews are allowed in certain circumstances such as for high medical bills, loss of benefits. The decision to make an adjustment is at the discretion of the school (i.e. they have the final say about whether to make such an adjustment).</p>
<p>If you took 30k out of a retirement account in 2010 and do not plan on doing this in 2011 then letters should be written to FA Offices of schools you have applied to, explaining this “special circumstance.” If you are already enrolled in college, then to the FA Office of the school you are enrolled at.</p>
<p>Even with the withdrawal, the family’s “new total income” was about $50k…with little savings.</p>
<p>If this is a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids), then the EFC should be about $3,000 -4,000. So, something is waaaay off. Either an extra 0 was put in somewhere…or something went in on the wrong line.</p>
<p>Retirement money typically is saved “pre-tax.” Distributions are then counted as taxable income. So yes your income is correctly calculated as $50,000, no matter the source.</p>
<p>However, I do find it hard to believe with an income of $50,000 that an EFC of $37,000 is correct. It sounds like there is an error in there somewhere.</p>
<p>I just calculated it manually and got about 7000. Sounds a lot better to me. I think we got the allowances wrong initially. I don’t think we included them all. Thanks for all the help!!</p>
<p>Good.</p>
<p>How many are in your household? How many adults?</p>
<p>2 adults, and me.
I have an older sibling too but i only listed 3 in the household because she finished college and is independent already.</p>
<p>Dancer, is your sister living with you? Make sure you read and understand the FAFSA instructions for this quesion, as siblings don’t have to actually live in the same house in order to be counted as a member of the household…basically, if your parents will provide more than 50% of her support from 7/1/11-6/30/12, she should be counted.</p>
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<p>When would I contact my school about getting a professional review of my fafsa? After I am accepted…or should I do this asap? I applied to multiple schools so I guess I would have to contact each individually?</p>
<p>Oops my last questions were meant for swimcatsmom by the way…thanks.
And sk8ermom, no my sister does not live with us, or off my parent’s income.</p>
<p>Did you report the entire amount as untaxed income? It is already included in the AGI. You only report the amount, if any, that is actually not included in the AGI as untaxed income (line 16a-16b on the 1040 or line12a-12b on the 1040A). You may have double-reported.</p>