FAFSA, pensions and social security

<p>I haven't been able to find this specific question, so...
My wife and I both receive a pension (we're retired) and I collect social security. Since those are our entire income, do they count toward the FAFSA (and against our kids' financial aid)?</p>

<p>Any income you report on your federal income tax return as part of your AGI will be used as income when your child’s FAFSA is processed.</p>

<p>Doesn’t matter whether it’s retirement income…or income from a job paycheck.</p>

<p>Are the pensions taxable? Presumably they are and they and the taxable portion of social security will be part of your AGI so will be included in fafsa income that way. The untaxed portion of social security is not included on fafsa.</p>

<p>Fafsa question 94i:</p>

<p><a href=“https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1415/help/pTotalotherUntaxedIncome.htm”>https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1415/help/pTotalotherUntaxedIncome.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>what a strange question. Anybody’s sources of income are their “entire income.”</p>

<p>^Yes, but it is a good question. The FAFSA form does not ask for the amount of untaxed Social Security income at all - it isn’t even considered “untaxed income”. As annoyingdad mentioned, most pensions and the taxed portion of SS are income both for IRS and FAFSA. FAFSA-only schools will therefore not use untaxed SS in their calculations. Other schools, which use PROFILE or their own forms, may (or may not) add untaxed SS to taxed (and other untaxed) income to arrive at total family income.</p>

<p>Yes…and that is why I said taxed income that is part of your AGI. ALL taxed income is used for FAFSA purposes, regardless of whether it’s pension, retirement, SS or income earned thorough a job.</p>