So, my family owns a small business and our income can fluctuate a lot from year to year. This year, we made twice as much (about 40k to 80k) as we did last year, but my FA package from Boston University was based on last year’s income. How much will this change the package? And about how long do you think it would take them to notice? I don’t want to commit if my aid is going to change drastically.
Your 2014 family income woulf affect your 2015-2016 school year financial aid. THe FA package is not final until you have filed tax return and verify your FAFSA (or other forms).
Please tell us what years you mean by “this year” and “last year.” Will you be a freshman this coming fall? If so, as billcsho says, your first year aid package will be based on 2014 income. To get an idea how aid might change with a change in income, use the Net Price Calculator on the school’s website to plug in some hypothetical numbers.
Our 2013 income was about 40K and our 2014 is about 80k. I will be a freshman this fall.
Then use the 2014 figures in NPC.
2014 income will affect your 2015-16 award.
2015 income will affect your 2016-17 award.
And so on
Aid for this year is not final until your 2014 taxes are filed and submitted, I think. Did you put 2014 data in the CSS Profile? If you used 2013 financials, none of your estimates are any good.
Are you saying that you applied for aid using 2013 numbers? Why did you do that when certainly your parents knew that the 2014 income was much higher. That’s not something that wasn’t noticed.
Well, as soon as you provide your 2014 numbers (which will be required), the school might adjust your aid.
Turns out our accountant made some big errors with the business taxes which then affected our personal taxes. The difference is not as large as initially thought, though I do believe we still made some more.
Are tax deductions reducing the amount of your parents’ income? I think some schools add certain deductions back in, so the income you declare on your taxes can be lower than the income colleges use to calculate aid.
How did the accountant make big errors? Did your parents provide the wrong information to the accountant?
Keep in mind…BU does not meet full need for all.
Because your family owns a business, the NPC will not be accurate
I don’t know what exactly went wrong but the error was on the accountant’s part.