@BelknapPoint I feel like you’re my fairy godmother/father or something. You always have the right answer for me. It never occurred to me that I could walk into the local IRS office (10 minutes from my house) and request a return transcript or non-filer verification! I guess I will take birth certificate or something for son’s. Not sure why I didn’t think of this myself. Maybe it’s the bourbon I’ve had to drink to get myself through all the forms.
Edit: Okay, so looks like the local office can’t produce the transcript. They can only give me the request form, which I already have (I typed that wrong in my question. I have the 4506T form, but I need the transcript and non filer verification). And they have computer kiosks to request online. But I can’t do that for son b/c they are currently not allowing new accounts and since he never filed taxes, he doesn’t have an account (which is why I got the message in my earlier post). This is crazy.
I haven’t done this myself, but my understanding is that you can walk out of the office with the actual paperwork you need, skipping the wait time that comes with a phone request and the U.S. mail. Of course, the IRS being what it is, different offices may provide different experiences. Good luck.
We found it helpful to narrow down the list of colleges our D was seriously going to apply to and then see which ones required the CSS PROFILE. If the student decides to apply to additional colleges that require the CSS PROFILE, those colleges can be added later after it has been filed.
The list of colleges that require the CSS PROFILE and IDOC can be found here: https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatingInstitutions.aspx. Note that some colleges only require the basic CSS PROFILE and not the IDOC while others require both. Some colleges request optional additional information, while some just use the basic CSS PROFILE questions.
Because the CSS PROFILE uses 2016 tax return information, whether you submit now or wait depends on several factors.
If you’re expecting a substantial increase in the value of parental assets in the future, I would submit it as soon as possible as it represents a snapshot in time of the value assets when filed with estimates for income in 2017 and 2018. If you’re expecting a substantial decrease in the value of assets, then it may be worthwhile to wait before submitting since the value of parental assets is so important to the institutional method EFC computation.
@3js3ks
“You should submit no later than two weeks before the
EARLIEST priority filing date specified by your colleges.”
I happened across this on the CSS PROFILE student guide pdf (https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org/pdf/css-profile-student-guide.pdf). I had no idea that this was the case. I just thought it had to be submitted by the school’s deadline. Unfortunately, neither my S nor I am ready for the 11/1 EA deadline, so I’m hoping that CSS PROFILE is as fast as FAFSA was since I’m now past the 2-wk date.
I’ve also found Paying for College without Going Broke to be helpful in guiding my gathering of info to answer some questions.
Glad to see I’m not alone in having trouble with the car question! Finally just listed the three cars with no other info–hope that enough cause impossible to fit any more. Annoyed because we have crappy cars and I wanted to prove it.
Not sure I saw this answered, but in some states, state or municipal employees, and/or teachers who never contributed to social security do not plan to collect social security - but they are typically covered by another, more generous pension system - the Teachers Retirement System, CalPers, etc. So schools using CSS need to ask because for these workers, they may have more of their gross pay available, and/or they typically might not need to save as much for retirement.
In the CSS Parent Housing Details section why is there no place to include property taxes, homeowners insurance or HOA fees? Where, if anywhere, should I record those numbers to be sure they are captured? Thanks!
Typically, if there are material property taxes, the filer may be itemizing deductions on their taxes, and the CSS profile schools usually require a transcript of the taxes, so these schools are able to get this information when it is relevant
According to the College Board’s website, the “CSS Profile enables colleges and universities to see a true picture of a family’s financial need and supports the mission of making college affordable.”
Through their IDOC service, families are asked to upload tax returns and W-2s which the college financial aid offices can use to analyze how much a family can afford to contribute to a student’s education. If there are special circumstances, you have up to 2000 characters at the end of the CSS PROFILE to explain why they should be considered. Unless they are significant costs, they probably will not be considered by the college financial aid offices.
The current need-based financial aid application process is intrusive enough. It would not be cost effective or feasible for colleges to do detailed audits of each family’s unique financial considerations and issues.
**Also, another stupid question: it asks if you plan to collect social security upon retirement. I clicked ‘yes’, but then my husband brought up that it’s a weird question. Do they need to ask? Doesn’t everyone plan to collect social security? (assuming US citizenship?)
My husband is a city firefighter and contributes to a state retirement plan and does not pay into Social Security, and so he will not collect Social Security when he retires.
@ProfessorMom1@binky66@Booajo I asked CSS about the cars issue via chat, and their response was that we should go ahead and use the Special Circumstances area. That said, if you have nice cars you might not want to do that since all colleges will see it. In that case, the wall street journal has an article that recommends sending a separate letter to the college (perhaps via IDOC).
