My husband owns a small business which requires us to use our accountant to get accurate figures for the FAFSA…I can’t estimate. But I receive a W2 which won’t be available until the end of January and my accountant can’t file without it. Is there anybody that has dealt with this issue? Am I missing something? Or do I have to wait until Feb to file the FAFSA? Is this a big problem if the school’s deadline is Feb 15 or March? Thanks for your help.
use your w-2 along with your last years taxes as estimates. you can make correction when you file your taxes (if your child is a freshman, make sure that you try to get this done asap).
The W2 is for my work–not related to the business.There really is no way for me to estimate our income. I guess my question is how big of a deal is it really to apply on Feb 1?
Will you miss the deadline that the university has required? If so, you may not receive any limited federal aid for low income families (FSEOG and Perkins loans) but you will be OK for Stafford loans and Pell grant. In addition, you may risk not getting any aid from the college if you miss the deadline.
I don’t think speed matters as much; what really matters is getting it done before the school’s deadline. If the priority deadline is February 15th and you do it February 1 then that should be great.
It depends on the school. Some schools award aid money on a first-come first-serve basis. See http://www.ed.gov/blog/2013/01/top-3-fafsa-faqs/
I don’t plan on missing deadlines. I am just reading here that people are doing it NOW, and it’s not really possible for me unless I risk estimating incorrectly. I just posted another question about which is best–to estimate and risk it being incorrect (not even sure if it would be too high or too low), or to just wait?
^It’s ok to estimate the incomes as you can correct the incomes easily later on. However, you want to be accurate on the assets (report values on the day of filing) as it’s very difficult to change the values later on.
I guess I am wondering what the point is of estimating if it can be incorrect. What is to gain for doing it early if the numbers could be substantially different?
Because most of your application will be done; all you have to do is change the actual numbers. The universities understand that your W2 might not be available, but given your paystubs, you can estimate numbers. As long as it is input into the app, they know you’re trying.
If it’s a small business does he have an idea of how much income he received and how much the expenses were.
I am going to try and figure it out today. And them come up with some sort is estimate.