<p>Hi. I just want to point out that I'm US citizen living in Europe. My father owns a business. I put $46000 for parents' portion of the 2013 gross receipts for this business. In 2013 total expenses for that business were $48000 and I put that number for parents' portion of the 2013 total expenses for this business. Did I make everything correct? Will colleges understand that there was a loss of $3000 from that business or they will only take that $460000 into consideration? </p>
<p>And I am not sure about parent's expenses part of the CSS. Why profile asks my parents how much they paid for utilities, food, clothing, automobile maintenance and holidays in the recent year? How will that information affect the result of the CSS in the end? How is that information considered in the whole process of calculating our financial situation?</p>
<p>Ok I understand that the most important informations about our financial situation are parents’ incomes, house equity, business value and assets but how much do you guys think those other expenses that I mentioned matter in the end?</p>
<p>No one can answer this. As stated, every school uses all the submitted the information in its own way. With respect to business expenses, for example, some schools will disregard some of them–i.e., add them back into net income. But these various approaches are not made public. Even the recipient of aid won’t know exactly how the calculation was done for him or her. I’m afraid you just have to submit your Profile and hope for the best</p>
<p>What does it mean that school will add business expenses back into net income? Will they add that $48000 of expenses (loss) to income of $46000 which will equal to income of $94000? It just seems weird to me, because in reality my father experienced loss of $2000.</p>
<p>Just to make sure: I have to put $0 in ,net income from business" considering those numbers?</p>
The income is a + and the expenses are -, so if they add back, for example, a $5500 expense, then the loss is just $42500, and the income is $3500. Presumably, you just enter “$0” for income and let each school sort it out according to their own policies.</p>
<p>Thank you very much. Do you know how in general schools deal with those incomes and losses? I know that each college is different but maybe there is any general rule to this?</p>
<p>Should I estimate low or high for this expenses for utilities, food, clothing, automobile maintenance and holidays? e.g how will my financial aid be affected if I put $0 for holidays expenses and how if I put $5000?</p>
<p>No they are not. Actually, we have figured everything out about our taxes and the only thing I’m not sure about are those expenses for utilities, food, clothing, automobile maintenance, household necessities, entertainment and holidays. How those expenses affect my financial aid in the end? I know it depends but there must be a general rule for that.</p>