<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I'm an international student who's trying to apply for financial aid in specific colleges. They reuire me to complete the CSS PROFILE. However, there are some questions I don't understand (10 to be specific) and I would like if someone could help me in this.</p>
<p>Is there anyone who wants to explain me some questions? We can, of course, talk this on PM, but I need your help. Thanks</p>
<p>If you list your questions here, the answers could help others too.</p>
<p>Okay! I’ll post them right now. I didn’t mean to because people usually ignore large and wordy threads… I hope people can help here</p>
<p>1st problem: My dad owns a little business (family business) and my mom doesn’t works. According to the CSS PROFILE, there are 2 questions that I have problems regarding what I stated: “Enter the wages, salaries… that your parents gained” and “Enter the net income from your business, farm…” What dad gets to maintain us is the business net income. Should I put the same amount of money on both slots? Or just put it on on the business income? Because my dad’s salary is, in fact, the net income from the business.</p>
<p>2nd problem: “Enter the amount of income your parents were or will be required to pay taxes on during their country’s most recent tax year.” I DON’T understand what this means. I need an explanation. Aren’t the taxes what you pay for water and light, which are things the government gives to you?</p>
<p>3rd problem: “Enter the amount your parents paid for all taxes, mandatory withholdings, and set-asides during their country’s most recent tax year” Isn’t this question the same as the last one? I DON’T understand this, or at least what I should put.</p>
<p>4th problem: “Enter your parents’ portion of the 2012 gross receipts for this business.” What are gross receipts and what does it mean by the portion?</p>
<p>5th problem: “Enter your parents’ portion of the 2012 total expenses for this business” What does it mean by portion? For example, if the business expended $100k on 2012, and my parents, from the business money, expended $20k, does this means that the portion is 1/5?</p>
<p>6th problem: Enter the amount your parent(s) paid or expect to pay for entertainment in 2012. Expenses like video games, movies, cable, internet…? Won’t these expenses go in utilities?</p>
<p>This is moslty all. I’ll review my CSS PROFILE and probably post more questions if I got problems… Hope anyone can help me! Thanks</p>
<p>1st problem -Just busines net income (“net” income is gross receipts minus cost of goods and expenses - same as “profit”). In your case, wages, salaries are $0.</p>
<p>2nd problem - These are the taxes paid on the profit from the business which is your family’s income, not any other taxes.</p>
<p>3rd problem - These could include taxes on the land or the house you own, taxes or deductions for healthcare, retirement/pension, etc.</p>
<p>4th problem - Gross receipts is the total of all the items (or services such as in the case of a repair shop) your familly’s business sold during one year. The “portion” is this amount divided by the number of owners. If your familly owns the business with another familly they would split the gross receipts between the two famillies.</p>
<p>5th problem - See above, similar, but now for the expenses such as rent for the shop, cleaning supplies, electricity, advertising, etc.</p>
<p>6th problem - This particular school would like to know how much money your familly spends on these things so that they can estimate how much assistance you need from the school without your familly having to cut back on these expenses (and hate you for going to an expensive US school!). Utilities are strictly electricty, coooking/heating gas, and land-line phone.</p>
<p>In many countries, when it comes to small busineses, profits are often not reported to the government very accurately so your familly may not know how to deal with the CSS. Have a calm talk with your Dad and see what he wants to do. This may be a bit uncomfortable for both of you.</p>
<p>Yeah… we are having many troubles because of that. </p>
<p>But I still dont quite get it. On problem 2, I need to put what exactly?</p>
<p>My parent’s don’t own a house, nor they have insurance or any of those things you mentioned. So I put $0 on problem 3?</p>
<p>In problem 5, are the salaries my dad pays to his employees part of that? I think they are since there’s not a single question that asks for that.</p>
<p>On problem 6, entertainment includes, then, videogames, cable, internet? So water, light, and telephone are utilities?</p>
<p>And it’s okay… I’m just doing this because I already started. I just know I won’t get any aid because I can’t pay any college. It’s useless doing this, but hey, I don’t have nothing else to do.</p>
<p>1) It depends on whether the business is incorporated (or your country’s equivalent) or not.</p>
<p>2) This is asking for an income amount, not a tax amount. The person who does your parents’ tax return for your country can tell you this number.</p>
<p>3) This is asking for the tax amount, not the income amount. Again, the person who does your parents’ tax return can probably give you this.</p>
<p>4) Income unreduced by expenses, times your parents’ percentage of ownership.</p>
<p>5) Business expenses, times your parents’ percentage of ownership. Yes, salaries paid to employees are business expenses.</p>
<p>6) I agree with keesh’s description of what’s utilities. I personally suspect the school will see them as purely discretionary items that can be cut back to cover your school expenses, but there’s really no way to know for sure.</p>
<p>Guille - Don’t give up! It is not useless and the less your familly can pay the more aid you will get at some schools. US schools are expensive but some also like to give lots of money to kids from other countries - the only problem is that those schools are typically hard to get into for all students. Which colleges have you applied to?</p>
<p>problem 2 - yes put $0 if there aren’t any.</p>
<p>problem 5 - yes, salaries paid to employees are an expense and should be included.</p>
<p>problem 6 - yes water, light and telephone are utilities.</p>
<p>1) It’s not. It’s just a small business</p>
<p>2) So I need to put the total income of the business? (the profits?)</p>
<p>3) So I need to put the total taxes the business made? </p>
<p>6) I understand that, but you guys aren’t answering my question: WHAT are expenses on entertainment?</p>
<p>Also, a question asks if either parent is self employed… What should I put?</p>
<p>Thanks for your optimism keesh17, but I’ve been told countless of times that my chances are not even 1% of getting all the aid I need, and FYI, my dad can afford to give me just $4000 a year, and I highly doubt any college is willing to give me $50k each year.
I’ve been told to apply to: Colby, St Olaf, College of Wooster, Gettysburg, and Trinity.</p>
<p>2) Yes, the profits would be the amount your familly would be typically taxed on.
3) If your familly paid taxes (other than the tax in problem 2) they would be reported here. It seems there aren’t any though.
6) Entertainment would include the cost of movie tickets, the internet bill, the cable TV bill.</p>
<p>Yes, since your Dad’s business is not incorporated he is, by default, self employed. Your mom is not unless she helps with the business.</p>
<p>Guille - I don’t know the specifics for those colleges but they are great schools and I know students who go to some of them. At my son’s school, Yale, any familly which makes less than $60,000 per year gets a full, 100% scholarship for tuition and room and board. They don’t care if the student is a U.S. citizen or an international student. Many students at Yale get full, 50K per year scholarships.</p>
<p>2) Here will go, as well, the net income from the profit? Because that’s the income from my family
3) My family does not pay any taxes. However, my family business pay taxes. Where should this go?</p>
<p>If my dad is self-employed, how come he doesn’t has a salary? I mean, colleges might ask me that or find strange that my dad is self-employed and that I put on his salaries (income) the amount of $0</p>
<p>And I know what you mean. Colleges like Yale, Harvard and MIT are need blind. However, I DON’T fulfill their requirements, sadly. They are looking for perfect students and I don’t have those things. M SAT score is low. My GPA is not 4.0 That’s why I’m telling you that I wasted 4 months doing all this research because I really didn’t have a chance. I was naive, but oh well. You gotta deal with this. I wasted all my life savings in applying lol!</p>
<p>And also, regarding that I left the field regarding the salaries of my parents, what should I put in the questions that asks me: “What does parent (1) expect to gain from work?”
If it asks about my dad, should I still leave it blank? Will colleges understand that the business provides us money?</p>
<p>2) yes
3) Include the business taxes as a busines expense which reduces the profit (your family’s income)</p>
<p>A “salary” refers to the wages for an employee. Your father is not an employee, he is an owner and his pay is the profit from the company. His salary is $0 but his income is the profit from the business.</p>
<p>Regarding “What does parent (1) expect to gain from work?” is a strangely worded question. Yes, leave it blank.</p>
<p>Well, since you did the applications you might as well do the CSS but I know those $16 fees add up. Good luck!</p>
<p>Your father is self-employed. That means he is not employed by someone else, and he has no wages. If his company is incorporated, and pays him a wage (and the business has its own tax return on which his wages are considered an expense), then he would have a number on that line.</p>
<p>The colleges understand about self-employment. The see it regularly. If anything, they probably don’t often see self employment income plus wages from both parents, unless the self employment is a small amount from a small side business.</p>
<p>Okay. Thank you so much for your help keesh17. I hope you have a nice day.</p>
<p>Thanks for your wishes, but I might ask for a cancelation of my applications. I don’t want these colleges to personally rub me in my face what I already know. I will start college here. Need to look where.</p>
<p>Take care!</p>
<p>Thanks you too CTScoutmom</p>