<p>I'm going to look on the FAFSA and CSS websites for the answer, but before I make myself nuts doing that, I wondered if this is even a legitimate question.</p>
<p>Is there any mechanism for letting the two know if you have/have had/or will have a special situation involving your income for the year at hand? In our situation, hubby's contract was 4 years overdue and the "retro" money came in February, which bumped his income up by about $16,000 that will never be there again.</p>
<p>Yes -- on the CSS Profile there is a space at the end for supplying any information about special circumstances. So you can explain there. </p>
<p>The FAFSA does not have such a space, so your FAFSA EFC will be calculated to include that extra $16. That will probably bump up your EFC by a little less than half the amount -- offset slightly by whatever added income taxes you have to pay as a result of the added income. </p>
<p>It is also a good idea to simply write a letter to the financial aid office explaining any special circumstances; they do have discretion to adjust situations like you describe. Note that I said "discretion" -- they don't have to make any adjustment if they don't want to, so you probably should do your own planning with the assumption that the extra money will be factored into the EFC for the following year.</p>