This is my first time applying for financial aid, and I’m not quite sure what to do here at this point…
I’m disabled, I haven’t worked since 2009, haven’t filed taxes since 2010, but my university is asking for tax information from 2015. There’s an asterisk by my EFC on my SAR on the fafsa website, so I suppose that means I’ve been selected for verification? It’s been there since before the information even went to the school. I’m confused, as my disability is well documented within the federal government - I can even go on ssa.gov, head on over to my account, and it’ll show that I haven’t earned any income since 2009. I tried requesting information that my school has requested online - but I’m told that what I’ve entered doesn’t match their records. So then I tried to request by mail, and again I was told that what I entered didn’t match their records.
I’m extremely frustrated at this point, and I don’t know what to do. My school is asking for:
INDEPENDENT 16-17 Verification Form
Student 2015 Federal Tax Transcript
Student/Spouse 2015 W-2’s and/or 1099’s
The first of which, I can absolutely fill out and return to them just fine. The other two I cannot, because those things don’t exist as I am on SSDI and they don’t hold anything back for tax. Is there any way to fix this?
Unless something changed, there’s a Student Certification for Non-Filing (a college form) and an IRS Verification of Non-Filing.
You’d need to ask them which does the trick.
You can get the IRS doc online (their confirmation,) but your school may require an original, which should come in under 2 weeks.
You can request the IRS non-filer statement online, but I don’t believe it can be just printed out there. Otherwise, why are so many students waiting for this to arrive??
Do contact the college and find out what they want from YOU. Because you are an independent student, you probably need the IRS non-filer statement. I’m thinking.
Thanks for your advisement, I appreciate it. Since the financial aid isn’t open today (and likely not open until Tuesday,) I will have to contact the school then.
As for getting the IRS non-filer online, I believe you can, but I personally can’t. I can’t do ANYTHING on the website as far as requests for documents goes. The registration for that portion of the site tells me that I am supplying the wrong info.
I looked at documents my school has listed (not ones they want me to fill out, just ones they have in their database) and there is one called “Explanation of No Income”, so I’m hoping they just want me to fill that out.
They’ll want you to explain how you pay your bills. If the answer is SSDI, then that’s the answer. But they will probably also want the IRS verification.
Was able to get a hold of my school today. Since I put that I am a non-filer on my FAFSA, they won’t require that I send them a verification of non-filing status from the IRS. All they will require is an explanation of zero income (disability benefits are not classed as income per FAFSA) and the independent verification form, both of which I can fill out no problem.