First time FAFSA filers: Get your PIN! (and a warning)

Paying for College
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<p>Rec’d D’s 12/30. It’s a Gmail account and it got put under the “Updates” tab. It seems a lot of her college stuff gets put there, not sure why.</p>

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<p>Woot! Glad everyone got it. </p>

<p>I fill out FAFSA ASAP after Jan 1 with estimates then usually try to get taxes filed around 2/1. Last year I was able to link the FAFSA to my e-filed return about 10 days after filing, which is about 20 days faster than the year before. Hopefully it’s as smooth this year!</p>

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Is there a benefit to doing the FASFA early vs waiting until you have more tax documents? My wife has read that we should fill it out and submit it as quickly as possible.

Thanks

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^See http://www.ed.gov/blog/2013/01/top-3-fafsa-faqs/

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My daughter just renewed her FAFSA for 2015-2016 and it still requires PINs as electronic signatures.

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Is there a benefit to linking it? We do usually e-file. Should we do that?

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Shoboemom: linking the tax return through the data retrieval tool is the fastest way to get your accurate, official tax information to the school. If for some reason it doesn’t work or you choose not to use it, your other option is to download a Return Transcript from IRS.gov in the case the student (your family) is selected for verification. The download process at the IRS site is much longer in my opinion if you have never made an account there before.

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Linking is easy and I guess serves as a form of verification. So yes.