My husband received a sizable salary bonus in 2014, making our family’s income much larger than it was in 2013 or will be in 2015. Is there a way to report this on the FAFSA? Only a few schools require a CSS Profile, and we haven’t even attempted that yet.
You have to report it as income just as you would any other income. You can request from each school directly for a Professional judgement consideration of the bonus in that it is a one time thing. YMMV as to how each school treats this.
You may want to use that money for something else but colleges will look at it ike you now have more funds to pay for your student’s education in the coming year. Next year barring another bonus your income will go back to normal and your EFC will go down accordingly. There’s no place on fafsa for this. You could try for the professional judgement and see.
But you would also have to show good evidence that this bonus is a one time thing that will likely not re-occur…to gain some special circumstance consideration.
The reality is that colleges will feel that some of this added income could have been saved for college costs.
ETA. Is your student applying to college that meet full need? If not, this might not matter anyway…as the schools don’t meet full need. If yes, then for the following school year, your income would be lower, and your aid higher.
Thanks. I realize that this bonus WAS part of our 2014 income so we have planned accordingly, but it was also a one-time payout due to staffing issues that have since been resolved. We have many years of W2s to show past salaries as well as documentation from the employer to prove that this was a one-time bonus. Regardless, having three in college next year makes me worried since FA methodology includes past, present and future income. Our 2014 income is definitely not indicative of present or future income. I know the 2015 results will be different. Just wondering if there is a spot to make note of this on the FAFSA that we missed, but apparently there is not. Thanks again.
With 3 in college next year, it would seem that the impact might be lessened unless the bonus was huge. What do you think the EFC for each child will be with 3 in school??
For the FAFSA only schools, it may not make much difference if those schools aren’t known to give much/any institutional need-based aid.
You should let the schools know and also, try to get some commitment of recomputations and increases for the next year if the EFC should go down. That can be an issue with those schools that do not guarantee to meet need. The first year package will pretty much stay put despite reduction in income, more kids in college, etc. Though they are quick to reduce the aid if the income goes up or other factor increased EFC.
Thanks for your responses. The bonus was approximately 20% of our annual, gross income. Our EFC total seems quite high to us, but that appears to be the case for everyone filling out a FAFSA. I initially asked this question for the reason that cptofthehouse mentioned - the first year package has tended to stay the same for our other kids despite reductions in income. I’ve made contact with some of the schools being considered, and they stated that they will reevaluate next year. We’ll see. The profile is on our to-do list this weekend. Thanks, again, for your input.