We have applied thru RD. We received the IDOC notification asking for “Federal Tax Form and 1099” along with few other forms. Deadline is Mar 2nd. It is not clear whether we MUST send 2014 Federal Tax Return OR would it be OK to send the 2013 Tax Return. I am afraid our 2014 returns would be ready by Mar 2nd. Thank you for your response.
You must send 2014 Tax Returns.
If you and your parents haven’t filed a 2014 tax return yet, you obviously will miss the deadline. No worries though – at least for Harvard!
Harvard’s deadline of March 2nd is so that students can receive a financial aid award with their acceptance letter. Accepted students who file the IDOC with their 2014 Tax Returns after Harvard’s deadline of March 2nd ARE NOT penalized. When you submit your 2014 tax returns through IDOC – even if it’s in June or July – Harvard will process your aid and give you the same amount of money they would have if you had filed prior to the deadline.
**THIS IS NOT TRUE FOR EVERY COLLEGE. **Most colleges, outside of HYP, have very hard deadlines for granting financial aid, so you need to follow the deadlines set by each college on your list. Bottom Line: Most applicants who are applying for financial aid for their freshman year need their parents to complete their tax returns and submit them through IDOC no later than the end of February. For returning students, Harvard’s deadline is around April 15th, so it’s less of a time crunch.
IDOC is currently very behind, too—we sent our forms in almost 2 weeks ago, but they still haven’t been processed. Apparently other people are experiencing similar delays:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1740587-idoc-processing-times.html
No worries, though, in terms of schools’ deadlines, because supposedly IDOC lists the date you uploaded your forms, not the date they processed them (and made them available to your schools).
Thank you for the response. That gives us some relief. We received this IDOC request for both Harvard and Stanford. The IDOC says clearly the “EARLIEST DEADLINE” as Mar 2nd. However it failed to say what does “EARLIEST” mean? Also failed to say on what the “FINAL DEADLINE” is. Because our understanding(thus we planned that way) is that once we filed the CSS profile with 2013 taxes on time, we have enough time until Apr 2015 to send the 2014 taxes.
IDOC is just the service that colleges use to scan tax documents. IDOC then creates pdf’s of those forms and makes them available to colleges on your list. If you go to Harvard’s financial aid website and look at what is required, they want your 2014 Tax Return (not 2013). It’s the same for Stanford:
US and Canadian Citizens: https://college.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/RA_US_15_16.pdf
International Students: https://college.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/RA_Foreign_15_16.pdf
Thank you all. Your responses are very helpful to us. Thanks again.