<p>I filed all of our taxes (Mine, my daughter's and her father's) by Feb 15th, and filled out the FAFSA application on Feb 15th, as required by her University (She is a freshman, who received full financial aid for tuition, books, fees, and room and board). The amount of financial aid she received that was used for room and board was taxable, and was reported on line 7 of her 1040 (I used Taxact.com, but have verified this in IRS publication 970, which is very specific). Our problem is as follows: When we got her SAR back from FAFSA this year, she had a higher EFC, than last year, which we thought was wrong since our income was actually less this year than last, when we had a "0" EFC. We called FAFSA. The first time we called, I was told that we had filled out her 1040 incorrectly, and would have to file an ammended return, since that financial aid amount was not supposed to be reported on line 7. I did more research, and verified that it was supposed to be reported on line 7. So we called FAFSA back, thinking the particular agent we spoke to was mistaken. The next agent we talked to was very nice, after we explained what had happened. He went to ask his supervisor, and came back and said his supervisor said we should not have put that on line 7. I read him the instructions from IRS publication 970, and said that Taxact.com had put that amount in exactly as that publication instructed (you put "sch" plus that amount on the dotted line by line 7, and then include that amount in the line 7 total). After he heard that, he said that his supervisor was wrong, but there was nothing he could do, since that line of the FAFSA application must have what is on line 7 of the 1040. He said we must go to the school's financial aid dept and ask them to make an exception and overide the EFC. I am now incredibly worried about next year, because this was only one quarter of her school year, and the room and board amount was over 5,000.00. Next year's taxes will be for a fullo school year, so that will be over 15,000.00. I am so frustrated right now!</p>
<p>There is another question on fafsa that asks how much of a student’s scholarships/grants were included in AGI, i.e. were reported to the IRS on line 7. Did you answer that question with the amount she reported? That number is then substracted from AGI in the fafsa formula.</p>
<p>Thank you so much. I went back into FAFSA and made the correction. It gave me a warning after I did it that my AGI might be wrong, but it allowed me to verify and continue, and it accepted the correction. We’ll see what happens. Thank you so much for your help.</p>
<p>Question 43d asks for how much $ you reported on Line 7 (of your tax form) in scholarships. This scholarship amount is subtracted from the students income before calculating the student contribution to EFC.</p>
<p>OOPS cross posted.</p>