Did I make a mistake on FAFSA?

Paying for College
1

My parents have completed their income tax return under the “Foreign tax return” as they are not US citizen and we live abroad. So, I had to convert all the income money to US dollars which I am worried about because I am not sure if the conversion is 100% accurate.

Will the FAFSA or the College I applied to ask for proof? And if the information doesn’t match up, will I be in trouble? We are financially stabled and I did not make myself look like I live in a low income home. In fact, I think I won’t be getting that much of financial aid.

And if they do ask for verification, I don’t think the translation to English will be accurate either.

2

I thought you were an international student. The FAFSA is a financial aid application for US citizens. Is that the form you’re filling out?

3

OP stated that parents were not US citizens. Doesn’t mean that the student isn’t. Also may be possible that they are confused as to what the FAFSA form is? It seems like many international students get that confused with the CSS profile and other froms required by schools.

4

@lunareclipse

Are YOU (the student) a U.S. citizen or permanent resident? Your other posts indicate you are not.

If you are NOT a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, you cannot use the fafsa.

5

@austinmshauri @livinginLA
I am (the student) a US citizen but my dad is not so he files foreign taxes. My mother is a US citizen as well and will be able to sign the FAFSA for me electronically but she is a stay-at-home mom so she doesn’t work.

@thumper1 The other posts are there because I have dual citizenship for the US and Japan so I wanted to see if I had to apply to college as an international student or not.

6

On the day that you do the conversion, get the official exchange rate. From there, it’s simple multiplication to convert the foreign currency to U.S. dollars. As long as you do the math correctly, it’s going to be accurate.

7

The information needs to match up. There are plenty of online moneynconversion calculators. Did you use one?

8

@thumper1 I have used money conversion calculator sites but when I compared it to other sites again, the calculations are slightly different.

And do I need to round the money to the nearest number as the FAFSA doesn’t let me type after a decimal point?

9

And what are parents exemptions and how do I put that on the FAFSA?

10

If your dad didn’t file a US tax return you would answer on FAFSA “will not file” and it should not ask about exemptions I would think.

Find out if it would benefit your family if your mom as a citizen files a joint return with your nonresident alien dad.

11

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/u-s-citizens-and-resident-aliens-abroad-nonresident-alien-spouse

12

@kelsmom, would non US income have to be reported as “untaxed income” on FAFSA if neither US federal, state or social security taxes were paid on it?

13

I used to live abroad and when I filed taxes I had to use the official exchange rate for the corresponding tax year which the U.S. Embassy had available. In the old days we called a phone number for it; now it’s probably on the web. I think that’s probably what you should use.
…
Yup! Here it is:
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/yearly-average-currency-exchange-rates

14

@mommdc

The FAFSA says, “For 2015, have your parents completed their IRS income tax return or another tax return?”
My parents don’t file an IRS income tax return but we do file another tax return (the foreign one) so wouldn’t I have to put “already completed”?

Filing joint return will not benefit my family.

And finally another question to everyone (sorry for all these questions XD)

The FAFSA says “As of today, what is your total current balance of cash, savings, and checking accounts?”

I have an account under my name but it’s to pay for my high school and will be closed once I graduate. Will I need to enter the amount I have now even though it will be gone? This bank account is also open in a foreign country and I do not work so I don’t file taxes if that affects anything.

15

The account balances are to be reported as of the day you submit FAFSA. So your account balance needs to be reported under student assets, and pardnt accounts under parent assets.

If your account is a 529 account, then it counts as a parent asset.

I am not sure how the question is to be anwered about the tax return. On the FAFSA you get deductions for federal, state, social security taxes paid but I would think that would only apply to US income and US tax returns.

For a foreign tax return, I don’t know if it gets entered the same way on FAFSA.

That’s why I asked @kelsmom, because she might know the answer.

You can try calling the FAFSA helpline to get some help.

16

https://fafsa.ed.gov/help/fftoc06j.htm

Here is some info about what exchange rates to use for foreign income

17

If you haven’t submitted the FAFSA yet, consider paying your remaining high school tuition first so that the balance in the checking/savings account on the day you submit the FAFSA is zero.

18

Okay so I have just sent my FAFSA after contacting the FSA so hopefully everything goes well.

Just wondering though, if it turns out that there are discrepancies (putting the wrong amount of money on the FAFSA) and send my documents if they ask for verification without correcting the Info on FAFSA, will the universities correct it for me? Or will I be in immediate trouble? Because some universities say that if there are discrepancies on the fafsa from the verification document, then they will be able to correct it for me. Is that how the process usually goes for these type of problems especially considering that these are foreign documents?