<p>In Jan I completed the FAFSA only using the check slips so the gross income amounts are right to the dollar. However, now that my parents did the tax, theres extra stuff like Child Tax etc and I think this will increase my EFC and im already in the borderline of not receiving the Pell Grant. Do I HAVE to edit the FAFSA or can I just leave it like it is.</p>
<p>Let's pretend that you are in charge of designing a system of distributing other peoples' tax money to needy students. Would you design the system so that accurate information is required, or optional?</p>
<p>Yes...you must edit your FAFSA (and Profile) to reflect the information on your tax returns...and change your filing status to "completed taxes" instead of "will file". It doesn't matter whether this will increase or decrease your EFC. It is fraud not to report the accurate information.</p>
<p>Alright thanks guys. I was just wondering jeez lol</p>
<p>There is certainly no reason not to correct the fasfa and the profile, though with the profile you have to print, write in your changes and mail it to each school. However you might want to call and ask the college first if you need to. I called and the college said not to. They said when they get copies of our taxes they make the corrections themselves.</p>
<p>If you know there will be a big discrepancy between your FAFSA and tax returns, one that will susbstantially increase your aid unless corrected, it does not seem smart to let the college find it and correct it no matter if somebody there says so. </p>
<p>That's like saying it's OK to rob a bank, because the surveillance cameras are going to catch you anyway.</p>
<p>Agreed. In our case we already didn't qualify for aid (even with 2 kids in college - ouch) so I figured why bother, particularily for the profile. But if you want the colleges to notice that you may qualify for more aid, it makes sense, and should probably be done sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>Obviously, if you might get more aid, make the corrections. That's not what we are talking about.</p>
<p>In this case, the OP's corrections will qualify him for less aid. I say he should make the corrections himself immediately. Even if someone somewhere said he did not have to.</p>
<p>The way it works is this: It's like the IRS and taxes. You do not want to come to the attention of anyone at the IRS. You want to be an unnoticed set of computer numbers in a data base somewhere. In the same way, you do not want anyone in the financial aid office taking an "interested" look at your filings. </p>
<p>If there is a significant discrepancy between the FAFSA data and the tax returns, it will come to someone's attention. That person might just say, "Hmmm, this is interesting, I wonder what other discrepancies I can find? I wonder if my boss would be interested in this? They expect me to find this kind of thing, maybe it would make me look good." </p>
<p>It is best to just do everything by the book and stay invisible.</p>
<p>Well as I said we already qualified for NO aid, so you can't get less than zero (isn't that the title of a novel?), so making corrections will have no effect on the aid we receive. However for the very reasons you describe I plan to amend the fasfa which was done before we had done the current taxes, but I'm not going to send paper copies of the profile to all the colleges.</p>
<p>oops, sorry I just noticed your response referenced the OP. guess it's too early in the morning for me. Yes, I would assume if the corrections affect the aid you might receive, it's best to make them, especially the case where you might get less aid with the new info.</p>
<p>I just finished making the corrections and my EFC went down from 3770 to 3596. I was expecting it to go up but I guess the numbers that I input actually made it better for us. $200 is nothing but better nonetheless. </p>
<p>Is the Pell Grant for the 2007-2008 year with a maximum of $4300 yet or is it still like $4050?</p>
<p>The Pell Grant has been increased for 2007-2008....YIPPEEEEE</p>