<p>I'm doing a renewal FAFSA and I got to the part of the FAFSA where they want to know my parent's financial information. The only thing is that it makes no sense to me because it says</p>
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If your mother or stepmother filed or will file a tax return, enter the "wages, salaries, tips, etc." from her 2010 income tax return.
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<p>How can this be? How would I know what to enter from the tax return if a 2010 income tax return hasn't even been filed yet???? Better yet, why do they give me the option that says "will file" if they're still going to ask me something I won't know unless taxes are filed??</p>
<p>If you are submitting as ‘will file’ they still expect you to put an estimate for all questions. Then when taxes have been finalized, you make corrections and resubmit as ‘filed’.</p>
<p>It is not difficult to add up the wages from W-2’s…that is income from work. Look at last year’s tax return and see if there are any 1099’s with income that is reported. Add them, and any other items for 2010, and you should have a good estimate of 2010 AGI. Maybe your parents can do this quickly for you, since they’ll know what should be there.</p>
<p>Thanks, I got it done with. I tried to estimate all the answers to the best of my ability to. </p>
<p>How come they don’t just say that you make your best estimates and correct later on inside the application?</p>
<p>It’s actually pretty clear, because anyone who has ever filed a tax return would know that “wages, salaries, tips, etc.” means those W-2 papers. Any other language would be less clear. Of course, if you’ve never filed a return, it’s going to sound strange no matter how they phrase it.</p>
<p>It’s also likely that your parents EFC is way more than they can possibly afford. That’s the way it usually goes. So you’re left either applying for massive loans, or transferring to a cheaper school.</p>