<p>Hey guys! I wrote on this board recently about whether or not I should report my parent's IRA retirement fund. The FAFSA application asks for payments to tax-deferred pensions in worksheet B and my Hamilton financial aid application asks for the same. </p>
<p>I know that I was told not to report retirement funds to fafsa, but I'm confused since they ask for payments to pension plans in worksheet B.</p>
<p>Also, does the same apply to Hamilton's financial aid application?
Assets like the IRA retirement fund do not need to be reported, right?</p>
<p>FAFSA counts payments to tax-deferred pension plans as income, but the amount of the retirement fund itself is not counted as an asset. </p>
<p>When you are filling out an income tax return, payments to tax deferred pension plans usually are not "income". So these payments are treated differently for income tax purposes than they are for financial aid purposes.</p>
<p>I don't know about Hamilton per se, but private colleges may want you to report the amount of your retirement assets for the purpose of determining whether one has sufficient funds to retire on.</p>
<p>Muffy is correct. What's already in the retirement fund is protected, but the expectation is that parents will put current income toward college ... so the untaxed income that is diverted to retirement during college years gets counted as income that could be going toward tuition.</p>
<p>But, if this is a Roth IRA contribution, it was never subtracted from taxable income, so don't add that in!</p>