<p>So I don't have a lot of forms in front of me (I'm doing FAFSA sort of hurriedly cuz of the tight schedule I had), not even my own income tax forms, and I'm basically estimating my own income and taxes out of memory, as well as last year's figures, and this year's figures, and extrapolating gross income from the student loan deductions taken from my mother's income.</p>
<p>So, I might be off by several significant figures. I won't be prosecuted, will I? I mean, if I send in the required forms later (for vetting) and stuff is corrected accordingly and my original application was off by 5-10%, what would happen?</p>
<p>Sister is going to college this year, but she had an EFC of 2930, which doesn't make sense. Shouldn't our EFC's be at most half of last year's EFC (5068), especially when we are no longer on child support, wages didn't change, etc.? And ahh, education credits and allowable deductions. These weren't a factor last year, but now I'm confused about them.</p>
<p>And also I’m trying to figure out whether you need to account for AccessUVA financial aid/grants + private scholarships. I’m really confused about the </p>
<p>Why don’t you just submit the form in error to beat the deadline and THEN go back and provide honest and accurate information. This should not make a difference, but you should call a prospective school just in case. I have changed my FAFSA in May sometimes, but they still say that I have submitted it in March, etc… The thing is unless you are making HUGE errors the financial aid awards should not be incredibly different. I think that you should know if you are doing such a thing. I believe that you should take my suggestion and file with accuracy even if it is delayed because you owe it to yourself.</p>
<p>EDIT: you need to call your financial aid office or FAFSA (18004FEDAID) for these subtleties.</p>
<p>Lol no office is going to be open at this moment.</p>
<p>No, the annoying thing is the lack of summer W2 (left at home) and what exactly my income tax was (it was like, several dozen dollars). </p>
<p>Also, where does my 2,000 / yr local scholarship be accounted for in the FAFSA? (It never entered my disposable income – it went straight to the school.) Also, what about accessUVA grants?</p>
<p>The numbers on your FAFSA MUST match the numbers on your 2008 tax returns (both yours and parents) exactly. Some schools will actually request copies of your tax returns as part of the application process. Also approximately 30% (almost 1/3) of the FAFSA’s are selected for verification which the schools then decide to do (or not) and what they require to be sent.</p>
<p>Estimate your information for now…and file as “will file”. BUT get those taxes done IMMEDIATELY. </p>
<p>Your financial aid award will NOT be finalized or awarded to you until you have changed your FAFSA to “taxes filed” and have updated the information to MATCH the information on your taxes.</p>
<p>If it doesn’t match…it IS a problem. If the schools request your tax forms…I believe THEY can make changes to the FAFSA to reflect the accurate numbers (Nikki, Kelsmom…am I right?).</p>
<p>Regardless…it’s mightly late to be doing all of this. I hope you didn’t miss the deadlines for your schools (likely that you did).</p>
<p>Oh…while you’re at it…check to see what other things the school wants (tax forms, school form, Profile, etc)…and send EVERYTHING they say they want.</p>
<p>Re. your scholarship question, will this help (from finaid.org)? If not, please call the FAFSA helpdesk so you know for sure!</p>
<p>"Some families incorrectly report their total income in the “Student grant and scholarship aid” line of Worksheet C. This is more common among families that use FAFSA on the Web (fafsa.ed.gov) because the instructions there make reference to grants and scholarships that were reported to the IRS on “line 7 of the 1040 or 1040A or line 1 of the 1040EZ”, while the printed FAFSA uses the language “in your (or your parents’) adjusted gross income”. The families see the reference to specific lines of the federal income tax return and report those figures without fully reading the description. The intention of this line is to allow families to report just those scholarships and grants that were included in gross income, not all income. (The US Department of Education corrected this problem with the online FAFSA in early 2007.) "</p>
<p>You would fill in the amount of TAXABLE grant $ received, so if UVA gave you grants in excess of tuition and you entered that amount onto your tax return and paid taxes on it, you then enter that amount in the FAFSA and they subtract that from your AGI so that the grants are not considered income for financial aid calculations.</p>
<p>Your probably would have derived the # to put on your return from your 1098T</p>