<p>Good afternoon, everyone -
I have already submitted FAFSA and Profile - received EFC from FAFSA which was a little higher this year. I wondered why and when checking my tax return again I totally missed that my accountant failed to report $1000 worth of property tax on my return. It looks like he reported $790 instead of correct $1790! We filed the long form for deductions and that really looks like the $$ difference in our EFC. We are at a full need college and S is a sophomore next year. I know I can file an amended FAFSA (our deadline is May 1 for returning students - but I wanted to go ahead and get all of this out of the way early) but how do I change the Profile since they do not allow that online now? Thanks - it looks like about a $600 difference to our taxes we would have been refunded and the extra 1000.00 it added to our income is adding about $470 to our EFC? Thanks!</p>
<p>I would not expect to see a decrease in your FAFSA EFC from this correction to your taxes. Remember the income you report on FAFSA is the AGI (adjusted gross income) which is *before *itemized deductions. Itemized deductions are not taken into account by FAFSA or reported anywhere on it. </p>
<p>Increasing your deductions will actually probably increase your EFC a little. This is because it will decrease your federal taxes a little, and federal taxes are used to decrease income in the EFC formula. So if taxes are less, available income will be higher. For instance if your AGI is $60,000 and your federal taxes are $6,000 then the EFC formula deducts the 6000 from the 60,000 making your available income $54000. If you increase your itemized deductions your AGI will still be 60,000, but, say your tax drops to $5750, then the EFC formula will deduct 5750 from the 60,000 making available income $54250 to be used in the formula. (though the tax saving should outweigh the EFC increase).</p>
<p>I don’t know about the effect on profile though.</p>
<p>Last year, when S was applying for admission and had to submit Profile before we had done taxes, he just had to make handwritten changes to the Profile later for the entries that were affected by the actual figures on the tax return. We were in touch with the school and the school just adjusted things on their end as needed.</p>
<p>Thanks, Swimcats and Royal!</p>
<p>My math is a bit off - which is why I need to have someone else do my taxes! In terms of a refund then, it really looks like a wash with the difference in the EFC - a pretty small difference, actually. I will call my PA and the FA office - it may not be worth the paperwork and time. Thanks for your replies. I am constantly amazed by the expertise on cc.</p>