<p>My ex-H has agreed to pay a certain amount annually toward D2's college expenses. Rather than having him write a check to me, he deposited straight into D2's 529 account in June (I am the owner, D2 is the beneficiary). Does that money need to be reported on the FAFSA somehow? If so, where would it be reported? It was not a payment made directly to the student. It isn't really child support, right? The description of items for the parent under "Other untaxed income" are nothing like this, so that doesn't really feel right either... Of course, the balance of the 529 is reported in my investments section.</p>
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You answered the question yourself:
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<p>Well… my other income also might show up in my savings or checking accounts, and I still need to report the income. So in my mind it doesn’t answer the question… and in fact the deposit was made in June, and I have paid tuition twice since then, so it certainly isn’t obvious from looking at the balance that the 529 got an “outside” bump. I mean, I am not trying to invite trouble (or income for FAFSA purposes!). But I wonder if any of the other experts out here have any thoughts on it.</p>
<p>you report the balances of your accounts on the filing day of FAFSA. The Dept of Education does not interest in your transaction history.</p>
<p>Yes, that is obvious, but they are clearly interested in parent and student income. Income is a much bigger driver of aid than savings and investments. And they do ask for “other untaxed income”. Why isn’t this “untaxed income”? They want to know if the student has gotten any “money received or paid on the student’s behalf”. If this check had gone to my kid, she would have had to report it. Like I said, not asking for trouble, but I’d like to hear from others who have a lot of FAFSA experience.</p>
<p>Sounds like to me he porked you…and you need to report it on the FASFA filing after the June (2013?) Dump. So if you filed fasfa JAN1 2014 this year it would be an asset. He should have given it to your daughter after school started or after completing school. CASH is key. And its not child support received. It could be construed as child support if there is an order…but its an asset of yours now. Do you have high income? Is it a CSS profile school. </p>
<p>This is almost like a case where the grandparent pays the school directly with a check…that hurts sometimes too…</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t feel “porked”. I knew that at a minimum it would be an asset. And if he had given it to my kid directly, she would clearly have had to report it on the FAFSA whether it was cash or not. I am not interested in violating the FAFSA rules, I just can’t clearly understand what they are in this situation. This is a profile school, so there may be a question in there that covers this (I haven’t done the profile yet this year, and don’t recall from last year when we didn’t have this situation). Also don’t know if there is a question on his NCP form that would cover this, wouldn’t want it double counted OR make it seem like we aren’t reporting everything.</p>
<p>It is a little like the case where the grandparent pays the school (and I think that is specifically mentioned) – but in this case it is just a donation to a 529 that is reported as an asset. But in turn that asset was used to pay tuition…</p>
<p>See <a href=“Part 5: Answers on the Fafsa, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid - The New York Times”>Part 5: Answers on the Fafsa, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid - The New York Times
However,
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<p>Good finds, but this is not exactly either of those situations… maybe you can see why I am unclear.</p>
<p>Bump… hoping some more of our resident experts have recovered from their New Year’s reveling and bowl game overload, and have advice. :)</p>
<p>We can certainly see why you are unclear. We are unclear too which isn’t why you aren’t getting much feedback.</p>
<p>My educated but not certain guess is that it’s like 4kidsdad second quote, money given to parents by a relative if you are the owner of the 529 and the child is the beneficiary. For fafsa purposes I think you are the only parent since only your info is being provided, the ex would be a relative(at least to your student) regarding fafsa.</p>
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<p>That is the entire Q&A from 4kidsdad’s link. It doesn’t mention the contribution to a 529 being untaxed income or money contributed on a student’s behalf. Just says it’s a parent asset.</p>
<p>Okay… parent asset it is. Thanks… just don’t want to get in trouble later.</p>
<p>So I spent my afternoon working on the CSS worksheet, and also took a look at the NCP worksheet as well. And am now concerned/confused about whether and how to correctly reflect this info on the Profile, and what to recommend to ex-H for filling out the NCP Profile.</p>