Our FAFSA was flagged for verification. I had originally entered the information manually but after the flag I tried importing 2016 using the IRS DRT tool. As I reviewed the numbers prior to submitting, I noticed that line 89 “Parent 2 (Father’s/Mother’s/Stepparent’s) 2016 Income Earned from Work” was significantly higher than it should be. It is off by over $100k.
I went to the IRS site and reviewed my transcript, etc. and all of that information is correct. We will submit our information manually but will also call the college to see what could be happening.
If anyone else has experienced this, I would appreciate insight into what the cause was and whether there was any way to correct the information from the IRS side.
Definitely not imported by IRS DRT. If it’s wrong, it’s because someone manually entered it incorrectly. This is one you can update yourself & resubmit. You may be asked to provide W2’s during verification, if the school’s policy requires it (it’s not required by regulation, but schools may require it per their own policy).
@kelsmom@BelknapPoint@thumper1@kelsmom - I appreciate your input but I just checked and it definitely says that it was Transferred from the IRS. There is no way to change this information under the Financial tab.
Note - I had previously submitted the FAFSA without the IRS DRT and the information was correct. I am doing this in response to the school’s request for validation.
Also, I cleared it and re-did the transfer with the same result.
Did you have an IRA rollover that the tax return doesn’t list as taxable income, but the FAFSA imports unless you tell it that it was from a rollover?
Otherwise I don’t know where that extra $100 k could come from.
On our FAFSA we did the DRT, but parent 1 and parent 2 income earned from work had to be filled in by hand because how would the FAFSA know how much of the earned income on the tax return is from parent 1 and how much from parent 2?
The FAFSA formula needs that to be separate so it can calculate the employment expense allowance.
@mommdc No IRA rollover and I’m a single parent/head of household. It has all of my info as Parent 2 with blanks by Parent 1. At this point, there is no way for me to fill that information in by hand.
I have no idea where they are getting the extra $$. My only thought is that somehow they have combined my information with my brother’s. I sold him my house so my former address is his current address. Also, our SS#s are very similar. His daughter is also in college.
I do believe that if there is only one person listed on a tax return that the DRT brings over the income earned from work automatically, at least it did for my daughter.
I would contact the school(s) and provide your tax transcript and see if they can correct your income from work number on their end.
Please let us know what you find out about the cause of this inflated income.
If your parent is not married and uses the IRS DRT to transfer his/her information from the IRS into your FAFSA, the answer to this question will be identified as “Transferred from the IRS.”
No information on what to do if this is incorrect…or am I missing something?
I originally did not use the DRT and the FAFSA was processed correctly. I realize that I can submit everything manually. My point in posting was to warn others that using the DRT may lead to inaccurate information on the FAFSA.
But you are talking about a field that the applicant enters…not one that the DRT imports.
The fields the DRT imports cannot be SEEN by the applicant. They are encrypted.
Every applicant should proof read what they submit before they submit it. This amount in line 89 could have been deleted by you prior to your submission…because it’s a field applicants complete.
As @kelsmom clarified with her link in post #10, if only one person is listed on a tax return, the DRT does bring over the income earned from work. But I thought the amount wasn’t visible then. Just “transferred from the IRS”.
@HMom16 did you already have a number in that field when you did the DRT? Can you try to make sure the parent 2 field is blank, and then do DRT again?
The only thing listed in that field should then be the “transferred from the IRS”
What I don’t understand is why the FAFSA even has a parent one and two if the parent is single, but I guess that info is just blank then.
First, thanks to everyone who replied. The FAFSA system is not as straightforward as some suggested. Once the IRS data is imported, it is impossible to change line 89, despite the fact that the original entry was input by the user. The message next to the field says “Transferred by the IRS” even though this is not true.
The only way I found to correct this was to Clear all Data (which sounds very scary) and then bypass the import process to correct the entry in line 89. And then, submit. I am hopeful that, once the submission is accepted, I can go back in and use the import process to verify.