<p>I have read that you do not have to report Business Assetts to FAFSTA. Do you have to report money sitting in a business bank account that was earned only by the business?</p>
<p>If it’s a small business with less than 100 employees and owned primarily (more than 50%) by the family the assets are excluded. Equal partnerships, I do not believe are excluded. If the business is pass through sole proprietorship, partnership, S corporation or LLC the income and salaries attributed to the owner must be reported is how I understand it. It’s been awhile because i had to look into this years ago when S1 started college and i wanted to know how to treat out rentals.</p>
<p>If you google EFC Formula 2013 you will get a link to the PDF of the formula itself and instructional notes. Print it out and work through it on paper to see which line of which federal tax forms are referenced. The formula changes a bit each year, but this will give you a solid estimate.</p>
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<p>You didn’t give a lot of information about your business, on the assumption that it is a Chapter S corporation (as many small businesses are) there are some things you should consider. (I think LLCs operate in a similar manner, but I’m not as familiar with them.)</p>
<p>On FAFSA, for most people, the factor that determines how much financial aid they can receive is not their assets but their income. Parental assets are only assessed at 5.6% of their value, and don’t include stuff like retirement accounts, 529 education accounts and home equity. In addition, there is a “protected amount” which is not counted - I believe it was around $45K for a married couple in their 40’s.</p>
<p>With an S Corp, the company’s profits are considered income of the owner, **whether or not he takes them out of the company’s bank account. ** Say you own a company and you pay yourself a salary of $100K. At the end of the year you find that your company has a profit of $50K. (Remember that the company’s profit is the amount left after paying all expenses, including your own salary.) You will have a taxable income of $150K. So while you may have avoided listing the $50K on your FAFSA form where it asks for assets, you will have to list your income as $150K, which is a much bigger hit.</p>
<p>I suppose you could leave this year’s $50K in the company account indefinitely so you wouldn’t have to list it as an asset next year, but it would keep your money tied up.</p>
<p>Another factor to consider is that if your company has a sizable profit and you have not withheld enough taxes (because you only paid taxes on your salary) you will (a) have a sizable tax bill next April and (b) have to pay the IRS penalties for under withholding. Unfortunately I am in this situation right now due to a surprise profit. (The bad news is having to pay up, but the good news is that at least we had the surprise profit.)</p>
<p>One very favorable treatment of small businesses is that the other assets that it owns are also not reportable on FAFSA. My business owns a small building and its land, and since these are owned by the corporation and not by me personally, they don’t have to be reported. Of course, in the event of a business bankruptcy the building could be lost to creditors, so this is not without risk.</p>
<p>And the final thing to remember is that CSS Profile schools generally do look at business assets, so all of this may be moot for your particular case.</p>