Hi! I’ve been trying to fill out my FAFSA, but I am stuck.
The only income my family has is my dad’s pension and social security benefits. The only income we fill for taxes is his SSDI. Neither of my parents work as my dad is retired.
I’ve been doing my own research, but I am still lost. What do I fill out?
@kelsmom can answer…but isn’t your dad’s pension income?
I strongly encourage him to use the IRS data retrieval tool to import his tax return into the FAFSA. There will be a question after doing so about income earned from work; his answer will be 0. Using the IRS DRT makes things much easier … he will be allowed to skip some questions if he uses it.
If he can’t or won’t use it, just follow the FAFSA instructions carefully & use the information on the corresponding lines of his tax return.
No, his only income is his social security benefits … his pension is not on his taxes.
That is what I did.
I was confused because I was told by my counselor at school to put both down although I heard other things as well haha.
Thank you for your advice. 
I’m not an expert on this….but I have to wonder why.
@BelknapPoint do you know what pensions are excluded from being reported on one’s income taxes?
This is definitely puzzling. Qualified retirement plan assets are ignored, but distributions count as income on the FAFSA. This would be on Form 1099-R.
I agree with @kelsmom that the IRS data retrieval tool could be very helpful.
The data retrieval tool only transfers what is ON the actual filed return. It does not search for things that might need to be there, or verify for accuracy. @kelsmom
Ha ha yeah. I probably should have been more clear.
If it’s a case of a senior in high school understandably not being familiar with crazy tax stuff, then maybe the tool would help pull in some information that might be there and just not easy to find.
If the pension income is truly not accounted for in the tax forms, I would suggest having an accountant review them because this could potentially cause many problems down the road and not just for the FAFSA.
I suspect that the student doesn’t really know. This is why parents should be doing their section of the FAFSA. I used to work with a population of students that tried to do everything on the form for their parents, thinking that the parents would not be willing or able to do it. Most times, the parents could handle it. When they have issues, though, they could visit a local college or community college financial aid officer for assistance. There is usually someone able to provide advice one on one.
Adding … any income not listed on the tax return needs to be listed on the FAFSA as untaxed income. So technically, you would need to list untaxed pension payments as untaxed income. But because I can’t think of any reason pension payments would be untaxed, I am concerned that @isdavid566 might not understand the situation … and might list income twice as a result. OTOH, if income should be on the tax return and isn’t, that poses a problem for financial aid … if that is the case, an amended tax return listing the income must be filed if the student wants to be considered for financial aid. For these reasons, it is important that the parent make sure that all income is properly reported on the FAFSA. This is the parent’s issue to resolve.