Does anyone know if cash gifts are treated as income or assets on the Profile? We received a one time gift from a relative.
Whether or not a gift needs to be reported as income on Profile probably depends on who the gift recipient is. Was the recipient the student, or a parent? If any of the cash gift is still retained by the recipient (i.e. it hasn’t all been spent), it needs to be included as a reportable asset, for both the student and a parent.
parent and it is all gone.
It’s treated as income. You can report it on the Profile either on the Parent Tax Return pages (e.g. "Line 21: Other Income’ and the following line where it asks, “What were the source(s) of this other income?”) or on the following page (‘Parent Income and Benefits Details’) in the ‘Parent Income and Benefits’ section where it asks, “Money given to the student’s parents or paid on their behalf”. Important: pay attention to the help text that appears where it notes that you should only report it here if you haven’t reported in elsewhere on the form -such as the Line 21: Other Income question on the preceding page.
Thanks for the responses.