I have 3 questions. Please feel free to answer 1, 2, or 3 of them. Please know that I have NO idea how taxes work. They don’t teach you that kind of stuff anywhere!! ALL HELP APPRECIATED!!!
- So this question comes up under the student tab:
How much did you earn from working (wages, salaries, tips, etc.)
Over the summer of 2014 (3 months), a sort of family friend (she’s 70 years old) told me she would pay me $20 an hour to help her throughout the summer with things she couldn’t do anymore (so like buy groceries, cook, do laundry, etc) and she paid me to stay nights too because she was afraid to be alone in case something happened to her (like illness or heart attack, you get the idea). I got paid at the end of each week and I would add up the hours I worked and multiply it by $20 and she would write the amount on her personal checks and pay me. At the end of the summer, I made around $6,000 (She is VERY wealthy). This job was pretty much like a babysitting job only I babysitted an older lady. So I am wondering if the FAFSA question I listed above includes my babysitting type job?
- Also, does that mean I need to file taxes? My mom told me I didn't need to since they were personal checks but I've been seeing different answers on the internet (no one else in my family knows how any of this works).
Anyway, I tried clicking the FAFSA option “Will File taxes” on the FAFSA but it wants me to use my 2013 Tax Return information. That wouldn’t be a problem, except I DON’T HAVE ONE. I have never filed taxes before in my entire life so I don’t know how to answer the questions!
- I am also a Freshman in college and I have Work-Study and one of the FAFSA questions says: Did you have any of the following items in 2014? Check all that apply and provide amounts.
----- and one of the options says: Taxable earnings from Work-study, Assistantships or Fellowships
------- When I click on that option, it tells me to enter the amount of taxable earnings. It says it can be found on the W-2 Form (I have no idea what that is). The problem is that I don't know what amount of taxable earnings I made and I don't have that W-2 form. So do I leave that box unchecked?
Please please please help me! I am about to burst into tears because of how difficult this is, especially when it feels like no one can help you or knows how to help you!!!
At that amount of income, yes.
Yes, you will need to file taxes, and you will need to pay self employment tax on your “babysitting” income (I’m assuming that your client didn’t withhold FICA taxes from your pay).
Enter the amount of money you earned from work study in 2014. This should be easy to figure out.
You will receive it from your school by 1/31/2015
I agree with MiddKid86. As to your work study W2, your college might have that information online. That’s what my daughter’s college does; W2s are only online.
If you are a freshman now, then presumably you are filling out the FAFSA for next year’s (2015-2016) financial aid. If so, the school may have a later deadline for submitting the FAFSA for returning students like yourself. If this is the case, you will have time to get your tax documents (like the W-2 form) and file your taxes before completing the FAFSA. What is the school’s FAFSA deadline for returning students?
Thank you so much for your help! So, I tried clicking the options that says “Will File”. How do I figure out which tax return I have to file?
And for my school, they have been urging us to fill out FAFSA at the earliest date possible (which was January 1st). Unfortunately, I am a procrastinator.
Also I don’t have any previous Tax Returns since I have never filed taxes before, so I am not sure how to answer some of these questions 
If you need to pay self-employment taxes (and it sounds like you probably will), you will be filing a form 1040.
Let’s take them one at a time. What is the first question that you don’t know how to answer?
What was your adjusted gross income for 2014? This amount is found on IRS Form 1040-line 37.
Btw, thanks all of you so much for your help!!!
Keep checking your college email for instructions on how to access your W-2 or to see if it will be mailed.
Fafsa tells you to use 2013 income information to estimate 2014 income information if 2013 is representative of 2014. You have a better 2014 income estimate knowing your self-employment income and work study earnings. Use that.
Yes, your ‘babysitting’ is far different than a middle or high schooler earning a few hundred dollars a year from babysitting. Your mom is saying you will probably get away with not reporting it which may or may not be true.
If you haven’t completed your 2014 taxes yet, you will need to estimate what your 2014 AGI was in order to complete the FAFSA before getting your taxes done. Take a look at the 2014 form 1040 and make your best estimate of what will go on each line in order to get a result on line 37:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf
At the very least, you will probably have entries on form 1040 lines 7, 12 and 27 to come up with an AGI result on line 37. Again, I’m assuming that there was no FICA tax withheld from your summer “babysitting” pay. To get the amount of self-employment income to put on form 1040 line 12, you will need to complete schedule C or C-EZ (most likely C-EZ will suffice, but check just to make sure):
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sce.pdf
To get the deductible part of the self-employment tax that goes on form 1040 line 27, you will need to complete schedule SE:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sse.pdf
All of these forms, along with their instructions, are available on the IRS website:
http://www.irs.gov/Forms-&-Pubs
I’m sure that this looks very daunting to you right now, but your situation, based on what you have posted so far, is really pretty straightforward. If you have questions about how to fill out the tax forms, try the instructions that are available on the IRS website first. Generally, they are fairly well written.