Who fills in and submits FAFSA application? Parents or child going to college? Is it filed at time of college application?
My understanding you put all your finances on FAFSA including your income and your assets. We would not want our kids to see our finances if it is them who actually submit FASA application.
Your kiddo can complete their part of the FAFSA (student info) signing into the FAFSA site using their FSA ID. Then they can create a key and send the thing to you. You fill in your info. If you use the IRS DRT to link your 2017 tax return to the FAFSA, your income and taxes paid will not be visiable to you…or your kiddo. Your assets, However, will be.
Anyway…complete your part…then have your kiddo sign the FAFSA using their FSA ID. Then you sign using your FSA ID.
I do believe that the student can log into the FAFSA anytime once it is processed using their FSA ID, and the previous asset info will be there for them to see. Most students don’t bother with that.
Remember, when your student electronically signs, they are affirming that all information, including parent info, is accurate. So just make sure it is.
ETA…when should you complete the 2019-2020 FAFSA? Well…start by looking at your kid’s colleges websites, and check for deadlines.
The FAFSA is available NOW, and it’s free. So I would suggest submitting it ASAP to all schools your kiddo is applying to.
I filled out the Fafsa (and CSS Profile) as CFO of this family. Then we discussed the nature of the documents before the signing.
My kid will be minor by the time we will be filing FAFSA. He cannot affirm anything legally not to say our financial info he or sh has no knowledge of.
@AI73
According to the fafsa guidelines. When your kid electronically signs, he is affirming that the info on the fafsa is accurate.
It’s his fafsa…not yours.
The parent (the one with the FSA ID) confirms the parent information, the student, with his FSA ID, confirms that his information and the general information (name, parents, address) is correct.
Being under 18 doesn’t matter for the FAFSA, and the student can also take a student loan without a parent’s signature. There is a law that allows that, even though in most cases a contract can’t be formed until 18. I had to fill out the medical forms and NCAA forms for drug testing for my 17 year old, but my daughter could take out her own loans.
If you don’t want your child to know your assets or income, don’t fill out the FAFSA. Your child will get no financial aid.
I did the FAFSAs for both my kids each year as I also did their taxes so had all the bank info and tax info for them. If they’d shown any interest, I would have let them do it, but they didn’t care. They can’t do it without a parent input as there are questions about bank accounts and assets the kids would have no idea about. Even if you gave your tax return to the child, information about 401k contributions, possible rollovers, other deductions, that bank account with $100 and no interest reporting is not obvious on the tax forms or W2s.
Why not work together on the FAFSA, at least for the first year?
FAFSA can be filled in Oct 1 for the following school year. The earlier the better in most cases.
We (parents) do not want reveal to our kids our income or assets. I don’t want to discuss here why, it is irrelevant.
I am only interested in the process of filing FAFSA that helps us not to reveal this info to our kids.
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