Freaking out about the IDOC forms...

<p>My mom's 2007 Income tax return hasn't arrived yet, and there's a March 1st deadline to get the papers in. She's saying she doesn't know when they're gonna come, so should I just send the 2006 income tax forms?</p>

<p>........................................</p>

<p>A tax return needs to be prepared; it doesn't just "arrive". So I think the lack of response may be because the question is confusing. Is the return not ready, or are they missing crucial information from banks, employers, brokers? Unless your parents own a business or something more complicated, they should already have received all the inputs necessary for them to file their taxes.</p>

<p>oh, i see. and yeah, the return isn't ready. would i be able to send the '06 forms, or would i have to wait?</p>

<p>contact the college's fin. aid office. some colleges want you to send the 2006 tax returns to their office if the 2007 papers aren't ready.</p>

<p>one question, can we staple the documents we send to idoc? or is there a "no staples, paperclips, etc" rule?</p>

<p>never mind, i read the cover sheet.</p>

<p>When you ask the colleges, it would help to have an idea when the tax returns will be ready. They might say just wait, or they might want the '06 returns. Presumably, though, the 06 info is already on the CSS profile, so it might not matter. </p>

<p>For IDOC, I was surprised that they want copies of all the 1099's, which are not official attachments to the tax returns. The lesson: be sure to go over the checklist very carefully. So what was the answer, staples or no? :)</p>

<p>on the cover page where you fill in the bubbles corresponding to the documents you will be sending, do you use pen or pencil? It's official, so that smells like pen, but it's scantron-like bubbles, which smells like pencil... so...</p>

<p>do the documents have to be in any particular order?</p>

<p>by the way, no staples of paper clips. and I don't know why you (OP) don't have 2007 tax returns ready. they should be ready. if need be, contact idoc or individual schools, and they will probably have you used 2006 figures until your 2007 figures are ready.</p>

<p>I'm in the same boat. Neither of my parents have gotten their W2s and info for taxes yet.</p>

<p>I know they should have...but their bosses haven't given it to them yet.</p>

<p>on the verification form where we have to put down all family members and colleges they are going to (if any), what do we put for ourselves? As of now, we are undecided.</p>

<p>when it says signed, does every page, including 1040's, have to be signed?</p>

<p>JohnC: I would use pen, say undecided, and sign the tax form only on the one place the IRS tells you to.</p>

<p>For those without the W-2s: Do you by chance have TurboTax? It has a neat function that allows you to retrieve W2s from employers online - probably doesn't work for all, but it did for 3 of 3 of our employers. It also works for banking/investments if you have online accounts. TurboTax, by the way, is a very easy way to do your own taxes; we used it this year for the first time because we knew we needed everything done early, and it was really simple.</p>

<p>answers to my own questkions if anyone needs them:
sign only the places required by IRS, not every page
cover page bubles can be pencil or pen, as long as dark enough
order of documents doesn't matter
on verification form for self, put "undecided" under "college"</p>

<p>Yeah, that request for all 1099 forms was a surprise! Had to go dig those out of a separate tax pile...and then we needed them for my son, too, and since he doesn't even file, that was weird.</p>

<p>1099s are primarily for those who receive their income as an independent contractor. I file a Schedule C as a sole proprietor and I had 10 1099s, which indicated my income for the year.</p>

<p>I have one missing 1099G that is for last year's state tax refund. I called the state and got the exact figures, so I was able to complete and send in our taxes, and I was able to complete an accurate FAFSA.</p>

<p>IDOC, however, wants all 1099 forms, and even after calling the state dept. or revenue twice requesting they send me the form -- or re-send me the form -- I still have not gotten it. I'm giving it a few more days, but I'm coming up against a deadline to get all the stuff into IDOC.</p>

<p>I wrote up my own declaration of what would be on that 1099G (figures, the state's FEIN, and other information) and I'm thinking of just sending that in. Not sure if that's okay, but I don't know what else to do at this point. It's not like this is investment earnings or interest or independent contractor income or anything like that. It's just a statement of how much we got refunded last year from our state taxes.</p>

<p>There isn't a place online where I can print a facsimile. Has anyone else had an issue like this?</p>

<p>'rent of 2 --</p>

<p>I'd do just what you did! You can't make the state do what they are supposed to do.</p>

<p>I am really frustrated by the whole FA process. We had some IDOC schools, some not, and we had the joy of being randomly selected for verification. That coupled with really complicated taxes means I used an entire ream of paper printing all the copies we had to send in and about $40 sending them. Arrrggghhhh.</p>

<p>spending money for financial aid (e.g. CSS)
a bit ironic</p>

<p>Wow, huguenot, I'm not going to do any more complainin' now! No wonder you're frustrated. Good golly.</p>

<p>I guess, at least, after this one FA hell-year, you'll only have to deal with the one school your son or daughter actually ends up going to.</p>

<p>Not much of a silver lining... but something. ;)</p>

<p>I thought of that the other day with relief, but then my silver lining got torn when I realized with a sense of doom that we have lots more children I'm going to have to go through this with <lol> </lol></p>

<p>I told my dh the other day, I don't think I can do this for 19 more years!</p>