<p>I ran the College Board EFC both FM & IM. The "state and other taxes" were VERY different under each method ($7,300)-- How can this be? </p>
<p>Separately -- The Calculators do not take into effect tuition for sibling elementary/secondary school. I know the sibling tuition has an effect -- Is it a negative or positive impact?</p>
<p>…hmmm…sibling tuition at K-12 schools…</p>
<p>Some privates view that as a personal choice/luxury. </p>
<p>Some privates (especially some Catholic schools) take it under consideration. (those Jesuit colleges don’t want parents yanking their kids out of their pricey Jesuit high schools… 
)</p>
<p>Tuition for elementary/secondary school is not taken into account by FAFSA at all. I don’t know about CSS, probably varies by school.</p>
<p>I don’t know why there would be a large difference between the tax figures on IM and FM. I’ve no idea how IM calculates those things. FAFSA uses actual federal income tax paid but calculates allowances for State taxes and FICA. The allowances are based on tables within the EFC formula. State taxes are total income times a set % which varies by State. For instance the allowance for New Jersey taxes is 9% (yikes) while the allowance for Florida taxes is 3%. FICA allowance is based on income earned from work (which must be reported separately from total AGI for this purpose) times 7.65% (for incomes up to $106,800).</p>
<p>RE: Siblings elementary/secondary school tuition. Very few schools consider this in their FA aid formulas. My experience is the few that DO consider the tuition will CAP how much tuition they will consider. I.E. Prep school may cost $40k but the college may cap that expense at 9k. When it is considered my experience is that the school basically subtracts the tution value (up to the cap) from the EFC originally generated by the colleges’ IM. This will vary greatly by school - only very top schools seem to consider the sibling tuition YMMV. Also you have to provide signed documents from the tuition charging institution to the college (once enrolled). This has been my experience only. I highly suggest you ask each school directly how they handle it (unless they have FA aid calculator on their site that shows how they handle it i.e. Williams College shows “Tuition and/or education loan allowance” on their detailed report). Good luck.</p>
<p>If you have time I found it helpful to run a bunch of calculators. Some colleges have their own on the websites, too. At the very least you get an idea or a range of potential numbers. </p>
<p>FAFSA is straightforward. You put your inputs into it and out comes a federal EFC. The private institutions have their own systems as has been pointed out. I agree the Catholic universities probably do consider the costs of catholic K-12, the Christian colleges probably consider the cost of Christian K-12…perhaps some of the privates consider private K-12, but it’s going to vary from institution to institution how much it’s considered since it is a choice…as it is a choice to send kids to public college or private college. Try different ones for the privates and see if you get several that fall in a range, then you are probably getting a better picture.</p>
<p>*Prep school may cost $40k but the college may cap that expense at 9k. *</p>
<p>LOL…well, I can see why. A $40k per year prep school is a luxury.</p>
<p>I can see a university capping the amount because at some point it truly is a luxury. It’s one thing to spend $3k per year at a Catholic parish school for K-8 and another to pay $30k per year at Country Day school.</p>
<p>At least for our state, the 3% tax figure that FAFSA allows is a BIG underestimation- it’s pathetic, especially since we pay more than 8% in sales tax here on EVERYTHING – that includes every single grocery item. Buy a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread, pay 25-30 cents in sales tax. It really adds up (it’s a highly regressive tax - sucks) The Profile allowed quite a bit more for state taxes for us.</p>
<p>Our state also allows only 3%. Our sales tax is around 9% and we have state income tax on top of that and I am pretty sure the lowest rate is more than 3%. Don’t know where they come up with 3%.</p>
<p>“Paying for College without Going Broke” 2010 Edition, Kal Chany. </p>
<p>"Elementary & secondary school tuition for siblings & other dependents*
*Do not include tuition paid for student applicant </p>
<p>Total amount paid up to a maximum of $8,140 per sibling/other dependent." </p>
<p>So he is saying $8,140 is the cap per sibling/dependent, as an expense in the IM formula.
Whether or not the CSS Profile schools will consider it is another thing altogether!
It is a life style choice of course! If you enter $40,000 or so on this line in the CSS Profile & this school asks for “supplemental information”, such as what cars do you own?
If you put down all luxury vehicles, then maybe that particular college’s FA Office will view your need in a different light! </p>
<p>Our state & local taxes always exceed FAFSA’s & the CSS Profile, as H works in a different state, so we are paying taxes in two states. I always send a letter regarding this, as it is a special circumstance. It is usually considered.</p>
<p>Forgot to add that we have state income tax as well - the 3% that FAFSA uses doesn’t even cover THAT (was about $500 short last year), much less all the other state and local taxes we pay!
Profile’s “state and other taxes” allowance was more than 3 times what FAFSA’s was last year, and so is much more reasonable. When I tried to appeal (on FAFSA’s ridiculous state tax amount) my daughter’s first year, her school didn’t give a rip and refused to make an adjustment.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, you probably don’t pay that sales tax on groceries, though, do you?? That one is more common in conservative Bible Belt states, since it’s a regressive tax – yes, Jesus would certainly approve of taxing the poor mother buying milk and bread to feed her babies…</p>
<p>We do pay sales tax on groceries (and we do live in a conservative bible belt area).</p>
<p>Thanks all!</p>
<p>I didn’t realize FAFSA limits to 3% state/local - YIKES! </p>
<p>My kids go to private school - NOT a $40k/yr school - and I believed once oldest was in college we’d have to change the younger ones to a cyber school. Good to know some colleges will permit sibling tuition into the calculation. </p>
<p>I also thought that the private colleges in our area came out close to some state schools due to the privates merit and large number of privates competing for the same regional pool of kids – now I see that it is also coupled with CSS Profile being “kinder” for our regional costs with the higher state/local tax & younger sib tuition.</p>
<p>Still am not confident we can pay college, but it is looking better than I thought!</p>
<p>Longhaul, it varies depending on what state you live in – the rate for parents making >$15K per year ranges from 1%-8%. See the chart on page 17 at this link:
<a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf</a></p>
<p>FAFSA should allow you to reduce your total income by the amount of actual medicare and social security tax paid. Instead they have you multiply your earned income by a given multiplier which results in a lower number. Certainly this is not fair. They use this same tactic when calculating state and other tax allowance which results in a lower figure than what the actual figure should be. In essence this allows the federal government to falsely inflate your total income resulting in less aid.</p>