Keep in mind, nobody in my family flat out lied. Here’s what happened. The college i’m about to attend noticed that for the 2015 FAFSA, my mom filed as head of household when she should’ve filed joint. My financial aid advisor informed me of this and said we would have to send the school a copy of a 1040x form, and send the original to the IRS. But here’s the thing, my dad worked literally less than a week in 2015. My mom was the one who primarily worked that year. My dad made no more than a few hundred dollars. And he didn’t file that year. My parents had no idea exactly how much he made, but they know it wasn’t much at all. While filling out the 1040x, since they didn’t know how much to put for the increase, they just put 0. Even though that was technically false because he did make something, it just was very little. This was back in 2015 so they had no idea what it was exactly. It was a pretty rushed thing because the priority deadline was coming up quick. So they just sent that off. And the college is gonna ask for their tax transcript when it becomes available in a couple of months or whatever. But classes start in January and i already see my aid awards. Me and my parents were in no way, shape or form trying to trick them into giving me more aid or anything, they just had no idea how much my dad made, so they just put 0 cause they knew it wasn’t that much at all. But it has me concerned. Could we get in trouble for this? We’re not trying to hide anything. Everything else is 100% correct. My mom’s information, my information, everything. My dad’s is just the only thing. And when I submitted my 2016 FAFSA, I noticed that the EFC and the estimated grant amount was the same as it was for 2015, even though the income for that year was thousands higher. But either way, would we still get in trouble? And what should I do?
What FAFSA forms are you talking about?
The 2016-2017 FAFSA and the 2017-2018 FAFSA both used 2015 tax return information.
If you corrected your 2015 tax return…both of those FAFSA years should be about the same in terms of your aid.
Never…and I mean NEVER make up numbers in your financial aid forms…or your taxes. Your dad could have contacted his employer from 2015 to get his actual income numbers.
The 2016-2017. They were asking for verification and my financial aid advisor said the filing status was incorrect, and that my parents needed to amend the taxes. So they did and all they did was change the filing status, but didn’t specify how much my dad made cause they didn’t think it mattered that much since he only worked a few days. I felt sketchy about it but they didn’t think it was a huge deal
Just be alert…if something changes with your 2016-2017 FAFSA per the college…it is likely they will be looking at the 2017-2018 year also. You might want to had over to financial aid and ask.
There have been others here who have reported that when their 2016-2017 FAFSA was changed…the 2017-2018 one was called into question too…and financial aid disbursement was held up.
If your mother changed from HOH to Married filing jointly, a lot of things should have changed in her favor - an extra exemption (your father), if she took the standard deduction it would go up to the Married/Joint amount (if she itemized, maybe not many changes). If your father made less than $3000, his personal exemption would have covered that. If he had an employer, the employer would have records you can get. If he was self employed, he should have kept records but if he didn’t, he should try to remember when/where he worked. Sometimes looking at a bank statement will trigger ‘yes, I made a $300 deposit on May 2 because that was for the work I did on the Smith house.’
You may need to do another correction. There isn’t any need to ‘hurry because there is a deadline’ and I’m not sure if you are talking about a tax deadline or a FAFSA deadline. or a deadline the school gave you. Just do it correctly. If your father made a few hundred dollars or a few thousand, you need to enter it correctly.
If your father used his SSN for the job, the IRS will make the correction. You will then get the tax transcript with the correct numbers. But he should have put in the correct number which would be available from the employer (often on a web page)
Yes, you will get half the pell for one semester.
I guess I’m glad to know they’ll at least correct it, but I’m just wondering, if when the college sees the correction (which they will because they already informed me that they’ll need to see their tax transcript as soon as it becomes available) will they make a big deal about it since it’ll be different than what is on the FAFSA? Especially if I used the aid already. But again, it’ll only be like a couple of hundred dollar difference for the whole year
They won’t the aid until you get the transcript to them.
This thread doesn’t seem any different from your other thread. Your mom made a mistake on her tax forms, which was caught, and it’s going to expose the inaccuracy on your financial aid forms but you’re reluctant to correct it.
If you filled out the forms incorrectly, you need to fix them. When the college gets the tax forms and realizes your financial aid forms don’t match, they’ll stop your aid while you go through a verification process. Colleges aren’t going to take your word that your dad only earned a few hundred dollars, so you need to ask him to contact his former employer for his w-2.
You can’t attend college if your bills aren’t paid, and colleges aren’t required to allow you to complete the semester once you start. They can put a hold on your account and refuse to let you attend class or release your transcript while there’s an outstanding balance. If students receive aid improperly, colleges are required to make them repay it. It’s up to you to prove you were eligible. It’s November. The spring semester doesn’t start until late January, but you need to get moving. Go update your paperwork and collect the forms you need to prove your dad’s income.
Search “financial aid code 399” and this is likely going to be your problem. It will need to be fixed and you won’t be able to get federal funds until you do so. If for some reason your EFC changes, then you will owe the college money. The tax transcript is being requested by DOE for almost 100% of students now. There’s no way to avoid fixing this.
Your parents sign their tax forms and attest to their accuracy. Did they report your dad’s 2015 income on the 2015 tax return/1040X or not?
If he was working as an employee and was supposed to get a W2, then he can contact the employer.
If he was considered self employed, he can estimate the income as best as he can, did he get a paycheck/paystub?
And this is WHY the tax transcript is required. The family fills out the FAFSA and tax forms with the wrong figures. The IRS makes a correction. The only way to confirm the FAFSA and hard copy tax form provided to the school are correct is with a tax transcript.
And suggest that your parents get help filling out tax forms in the future.
They say my payment is due the first day of the semester, and my financial aid advisor said that the 1040x copy and whatever other forms that it states I have to send in (which I did) will be sufficient enough for me to get aid for that semester. And that whenever the tax transcript is available, I have to send it to the department of education
I made a similar post about this last night, but i wanted to expand a little bit. Basically, when i filled out my 2017-2018 FAFSA back in 2016, i entered all of the information on my moms tax return as accurately as i possibly could. The only problem was she filed as Head of Household when she should’ve filed Married Joint. The college informed me of this, so she had to amend her taxes and send the school a copy of the 1040x form her and my dad sent to the IRS. But here’s the thing, my dad had a job for literally less than a week in 2015. The job paid like $9 an hour, and he was there for just a few days. So while doing the 1040x form, they considered his income to be irrelevant, so they just put 0 for the increase. Especially since they had no idea exactly how much he made. it just was a really small amount. No more than like a few hundred. All they really wanted to do was change the filing status. The school gave me a priority deadline for the FAFSA documents. I see my aid awards on screen now. My EFC is 0 and my pell grant is $5,920.00. Which i’m assuming i’m only gonna need half of that for this school year considering i didn’t attend school in the Fall semester. I’m just doing this Spring semester, skipping the Summer semester, then going back in the Fall semester. But the thing i’m constantly worried about is i know the people that handle financial aid take false information really seriously, and technically the information that was sent to them wasn’t 100% true because my dad did make a very small income in 2015, but my mom made the vast majority of the money, which was accurately reported on my FAFSA. The college is gonna want to see my parents Tax transcript when it becomes available in a couple of months, and I’m wondering what they’re gonna do if they see the information isn’t 100% correct. Especially if i already used some of the aid. I don’t think i should owe them any money because i’m 99.9% sure my EFC and need and everything would be the exact same if they did get his income. I honestly really do want to contact them and let them know what’s up, but at the same time, i know they’re gonna hold up my aid, and i won’t be able to afford to go to school in the Spring semester. I really wish they could’ve just paid attention to the 2018-2019 FAFSA I submitted because all of the information is absolutely 100% correct and could easily be proven to be correct. But all because of a mistake made in 2015, now i’m sorta freaking out. What should i do? What do you think is gonna happen? I of course haven’t decided exactly what i wanna do yet. We’re all really new to this whole college and financial aid thing and don’t know what we’re doing
Thank you for all of your helpful responses. I have decided what to do. My family and I will see if we can find my dad’s W2 form anywhere in the house. If we can’t find it, he’ll call his old job. As soon as we get his income for 2015, I’m gonna correct my FAFSA and then contact my financial aid advisor and tell her the whole situation. And assuming the IRS will correct the 1040x form, the college will see from their transcript that the information is correct, and no action will need to be taken. Hopefully it won’t delay my aid and stop me from being able to pay for college when I’m supposed to, but it’s better than risking consequences of not reporting accurate information. Thanks again!