Let’s say you have $1000 in your bank account on the day you submit the FAFSA, but you spend it all the next day. Does the IRS track you to see if you’re telling the truth about how much money you have in your student bank account? According to the 2015-2016 FAFSA (paper version), it says not to include student aid in the “current cash, savings, and checking account balances.” However, a FAFSA representative told me to include all the money in my account, including financial aid, when I file a FAFSA. I’ve read other threads on this topic, and the consensus seems to be that this is a shady area, and that students should just generally drain their accounts before filing the FAFSA. By draining, it means spending, not transfering the money elsewhere. In other words, it is advised to spend all of last year’s financial aid before applying for this year’s financial aid. Any thoughts on this?
Why not pay some months of rent in advance?
Any money in your bank account that was financial aid money is not reported on the FAFSA for upcoming years.
There is no spot on your IRS tax return for bank account balances. The only reference to your bank account money is any interest you received from your financial institution in excess of $9.99. I doubt that you will get that mich interest on this account.
This money is financial aid surplus money, right?
Just make sure you keep good records of your actual college expenses, financial aid awards, etc. start a file, and keep the paper copies of these.
You do not need to spend the money now of it is financial aid surplus money. That is not counted on your future FAFSA.
Read the responses in the link. You are asking the same question. Annoyingdad wrote an excellent response on this other thread. Read it.