EFC cannot be calculated (error?)

Just submitted the FAFSA and we’re having some issues. It calculated an EFC of about $11,000, but it also gave us this error message:

“You verified that either you paid the same amount or more in taxes than your adjusted gross income (AGI), or your parents paid the same amount or more in taxes than their AGI. Therefore, we cannot calculate an estimated Expected Family Contribution (EFC). You must contact your Financial Aid Administrator (FAA).”

We’ve looked over it and can’t find the problem it describes (parental AGI ~100,000/income tax under 10,000; I’m not filing) or any other errors. My dad’s calling tomorrow, but I’m worried and wondered if anyone else got the same messsage. Did it turn out to be an error in the application, or a problem with the system? Did it get resolved?

Look it over again…

it appears that it’s saying that you did something like this:

Student
AGI income … 3000
taxes paid…3000

or

Parents
AGI income…100000
taxes paid…100000

I don’t have the exact wording correct, but they’re saying that either in the parent section…or the student section…you’ve put the income earned as the same as taxes paid.

Also…the EFC is too low unless you have a sibling in college.

@kelsmom What do you think?

Make sure your decimal points are in the right spot…or that you didn’t type too many zeros.

I do have a sibling in college, and last year’s EFC was about $22,000 IIRC, which is why this was pretty much as expected.

Looked it over again and it’s definitely:

Parents
AGI… 100,000
Taxes… 8,000

oh good…you have a sibling in college…did your parents do your sibling’s FAFSA as well? What results did that one get?

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Looked it over again and it’s definitely:

Parents
AGI… 100,000
Taxes… 8,000


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Ok…but what does it say in the student section?

I don’t remember exactly, but we looked over it again and I’m pretty sure it was

Will not file
AGI… less than 1,000
Taxes… blank (don’t think it asked for them after saying will not file)

“Will not file” would not skip the taxes question. Even if you don’t file, you could still owe taxes. It’s probably the income amount of $1000 that skips the taxes question.

Did you print out your FAFSA? If not, do so…then look line by line.

Yeah, I think you’re right that it was the income question. We did print the FAFSA out to look at it before sending it in and again after getting the error, couldn’t find an issue. Today my dad called the appropriate person in the NH government, who couldn’t figure it out and told him to call someone in some part of the federal government, who also couldn’t figure out what the issue was. Then he called the UNH financial aid office; the guy there couldn’t work it out either, but he thought the message could be a glitch and they would probably just use the number it calculated.

I’m hoping there’s not some silly mistake like an extra zero which we keep missing.

Are you calling someone in New Hampshire (NH)?

You need to call the FAFSA helpline.

The second number he called was the FAFSA helpline. People there told him to look at the application again. Apparently then there was some misunderstanding with something my mom said so instead of reviewing the application, he called the UNH financial aid office (since that’s our state flagship and it says to call our Financial Aid Administrator).

Sorry if that’s hard to follow, I don’t totally understand it.

In summary: FAFSA helpline people said to look at the FAFSA again, we’ve already done that and can’t find any errors, I’m about to call again.

Update: I looked again at the student aid report on the FAFSA website and I can’t find the message. I’ve also received an e-mail that my FAFSA was processed successfully. I’m still planning on calling, but I wonder if the problem has gone away now that it’s been processed.

If the most recent email you received has an EFC & no issues, you’re good.