FAFSA/IRS illogical numbers?

<p>I've recently submitted my FAFSA just to get things out of the way, but I noticed that my EFC was calculated to be 000000. My parents make 100k/yr and they file the IRS jointly.
I am a US Citizen living abroad thus we are only taxed with ~$5000 leaving about $95000 as our income. Now im pretty sure i filled in all the fields (AGI, Annual Income, Taxable Income, etc...) correctly and my dad even made sure of them before i submitted. what i found particularly weird was that our AGI on the IRS form was around $5000. Now i dont really know what that means exactly, but im pretty sure that my EFC should not be 000000. any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. anyone else who is a US citizen living abroad also experience this?</p>

<p>Did you list the non-taxed income (i.e. the $95,000 of the $100,000) in the area where it asks for non-taxed income like child support?</p>

<p>If you put $5000 AGI on the fafsa because that’s what the 1040 said, then that’s why you got a 0 EFC. The question is why is the AGI on the 1040 only $5000? Look at the prior lines on the 1040. What was line 7, income from work? Were there losses of some kind that offset income? What were lines 12, 13 and 14? I’m assuming you are using 2012 tax forms as an estimate. Will 2013 taxes be similar?</p>

<p>Now that I think about, if you are living abroad and paying taxes in your country, then you get an allowance on US taxes for that and that could be why your US AGI is so low. I’m not an expert on that and I don’t know how that is handled on fafsa. You may have to put the allowance for foreign taxes paid as untaxed income on fafsa. Someone who knows more will hopefully weigh in on this.</p>

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Did your parents claim Foreign Income Exclusion on their tax returns?</p>

<p>If they did claim a FIE, that amount is not reported on the FAFSA anywhere. It is a loophole that benefits a few …</p>

<p>Yess exactly! There was a value that i couldn’t list because the field was never there and i remember entering it in the CSS profile and i believe it was a -$95000. Im assuming it’s the foreign income exclusion that you guys mentioned. How do i clarify this? Should i just leave it and they would understand due to my indication that i live in a foreign country? Also, kelsmom, do you have any more information on this ‘loophole’?</p>

<p>Pages 12 and 13 of the pdf: <a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1314AVGCh2.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1314AVGCh2.pdf&lt;/a&gt;. The Handbook clearly states that Foreign Income Exclusion is not reported on the FAFSA. You don’t have to offer an explanation.</p>

<p>If a school uses the Profile, they will most likely add that income back in for determining institutional aid.</p>

<p>Well that’s a relief. Thanks a lot I really appreciate it! Hope this helps someone else too.</p>