<p>Thanks for the help guys. I have another question. When listing US Savings Bonds as assets, do you list the face value of the bond, the current value of the bond, or what you actually paid for the bond. Is a student expected to cash in the bond before maturity?</p>
<p>You list current value, student is not expected to cash it in before maturity. RE: UTMA, it is my understanding that even though the money is held by the custodian until the child is over 18 or 21 or whatever age the account was originally set up under the funds are still accessible to the student for educational purposes and thus the funds are considered assets of the student.<br>
Back in the day, I think a lot of us set up UTMAs for kids for college savings...now I'm not sure it is being recommended for just this reason. You have to put down the funds in the UTMA as student assets.</p>
<p>ebeeeee, I believe you are correct. The beneficiary is the legal owner of the account, regardless of the age at which the beneficiary gets full control of the funds. So the other thing is that, unlike a 529, you cannot change the beneficiary on the UTMA, and you cannot withhold the funds from the beneficiary at the legal age if the kid decides not to go to college or becomes a drug addict or whatever reason you wouldn't want him/her to have the funds.</p>
<p>How can one check the current value of a savings bond ??? Is there a calculation site online ??</p>
<p>If one cashes the bonds in their Senior year , do they declare the tax benefits on her tax forms or the parents? ( Both are names are on them ) .</p>
<p><a href="http://www.treasurydirect.gov/BC/SBCPrice%5B/url%5D">http://www.treasurydirect.gov/BC/SBCPrice</a></p>
<p>When cashing the savings bonds- you have to sign with a soc sec #, so you would put the amount on whomevers tax return that you used ( usually the owner)</p>
<p>The bond should list a social security number. That's the owner and that's who reports the income on their tax returns.</p>
<p>I have joint 24 month certificate with my son, where he must be listed as the primary as interest has shown up on his tax return in the past. In any case it is for roughly $2500 and we're going to have to withdraw it before it matures. Is there any reason I couldn't transfer that money to my own account before I file the FAFSA since it is a joint account?</p>
<p>^. We had the same scenario. Joint, TIN in childs name. We simply withdrew the $ and placed it into a 529 with child (only child) as beneficiary and we as owners. This money was non UTMA $ and we were not too concerned about "nicities," since we have one child and the 529 was soon withdrawn to pay COA.</p>
<p>Calculations using the FAFSA formula, CSS formula, and 1040 tax programs, indicated that no difference would result in the transference-Except for a small tax credit from the funding of a 529. I made a comment to our state's Sec of Treas, who oversees the 529. His comment was a smile and a shrug. </p>
<p>Use the calculators!. You will save a lot of time and hair pulling if you get an approximate idea of you FC. We determined we were 100% FC of any COA, so whatever we did had no impact to our situation but some impact on our taxes. </p>
<p>Check with your tax advisor or whatever to your situation.</p>
<p>The astute, figures it out.</p>
<p>If you have a 24 month CD, You may find that the current rate for CD's are much higher and any penalty for termination of your current CD may be minor, and may be tax deductible.</p>