<p>Add me to the long line of complainers re:FAFSA calculator</p>
<p>Our EFC is inbetween 1/4 & 1/5th of our before tax income ( less than $70,000)
We put a small amount in retirement account which consitutes total savings-
This amount is shown on worksheet B of the FAFSA-
Out of curiousity I left out the IRA account and added the money to our taxable income- EFC was the same.
So on the worksheet B- is this income then added back to our available income for tuition or did I do something wrong?</p>
<p>Both the federal and instituitional methodologies add back to AGI voluntary tax deferred retirement contributions. The "reasoning" there is that if you can afford to set aside money for retiremnet, you can afford to save it for college too. Just be sure you do not include it in the total on #73, just #79. By the way if the contribution is in Box 14 it is not put on the FAFSA because that represents an involuntary contribution.</p>
<p>boy do i feel dumb
I borrowed money to put into an IRA because I thought it would put us ahead in the long run-
:::::::beating head against keyboard::::::::</p>