<p>ED = Education Department?</p>
<p>Kdog, every school does have the right to require the link if they want … I was trying to explain why some might not require it, even if they are verifying the student’s file.</p>
<p>ED=Department of Education. Sorry for the shorthand … so many of the parents on this board are so savvy, I sometimes forget! :)</p>
<p>No problem, it’s a wonder we know how to type with all the acronyms we love to use. 
Thanks for the heads up on the verification.</p>
<p>Just posting this here. </p>
<p>If you owe IRS taxes, you will not be able to use the data retrieval and/or get a transcript until you have paid (and then it will take a week for them to process).</p>
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<p>FAFSA asks a few questions before attempting the IRS linking tool and based on your response it will decide whether your FAFSA can be linked to IRS or not. In our case, since I filed Head of Household (that’s one of the questions), it came back telling me ‘based on the information you provided you cannot use the IRS link tool’. Alrite, I went ahead and updated the information myself. I am sure I will be subject to verification, so probably I should get the tax transcript from IRS and be ready?</p>
<p>I file Head of Household and it linked me.</p>
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I believe as long as there is only one tax return (i.e. single parent) that is true. It becomes an issue when there are two SSN’s to consider. See below:</p>
<p>if you are married, but you or your spouse filed as head of household. (Note: This option displays only if you indicate that you are married.)</p>
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Do you know this for a fact as I was told differently by the IRS when I called them? It seems they are providing conflicting information.</p>
<p>If I’m not mistaken, one of a married couple can’t file HoH so the FAFSA link is the least of that person’s problems. Unless the spouse is overseas or some other pretty narrow exception.</p>
<p>kdog044 - yes, i know this for a fact as irs told it to us (call and ask them directly) as well, the financial aid office already knew that and confirmed it.</p>
<p>crazymonster, I did call the IRS and was told differently and that is why I am questioning it.</p>
<p>Arutha, are you separated but not divorced? If so, did you put separated & only your info on the FAFSA? I thought it was supposed to link if you filed HofH with single/separated/divorced … just not with married and/or with both parents listed. If you were separated (or even divorced or single) and listed only one parent, that means no HofH can link at all. Strange.</p>
<p>Also, the tax transcript is free, so it wouldn’t hurt to request it. If you do have to submit it, make sure you sign and date it (required per regs).</p>
<p>^ kdog, did you ask the question specifically about if you will be able to get a transcript of if your taxes will be “processed” without payment?</p>
<p>As I mentioned, it took 3 different contacts with IRS to learn this information. Immediately my response was to panic and call the FA office at one of S’s schools who knew what I was going to say before I said it… so he knew that we could not use the data retrieval without paying our taxes.</p>
<p>However, yes, if you don’t pay, I think you can get a transcript on May 15th. H mentioned something about that.</p>
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<p>No, we are married and reported both parents’ info on FAFSA, but DH doesn’t have SSN and never lived in this country. So, I chose to file HoH in order to be able to eFile and reported his income as ‘untaxed income’ on FAFSA.</p>
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I asked about both. As far as the transcript goes, they indicated my son’s return was being processed and should be available after 3/5. He is a first time filer so it took them 10 days to start processing. I guess I will find out in a few weeks. I went ahead and completed his FAFSA without his retrieval (I was able to download our info as we are getting a refund) and I will still try adding his later if it ends up working. I was told owing money has nothing to do with it being processed or not but refunds are indeed processed first so that also contributes to the delay. I guess time will tell if I was fed a line or not. ;)</p>
<p>Well, it appears that I’m still in “limbo land”. Filed Fafsa 4 weeks ago. Can’t get Data Retrieval Tool to work. Can’t get tax transcript, either; IRS link says “transcript not available” for 2011. Apparently, my return hasn’t been fully processed. I did owe money, but IRS took the money from my bank account yesterday. (They WOULD get THAT part right!!!) I got a notice from one of the three schools today, they want verification - Data Retrieval or Transcript REQUIRED! I’m expecting requests for other kids’ schools before this is over. For me, this has been the biggest pain-in-the-neck…</p>
<p>Hallelujah! It FINALLY worked!</p>
<p>Just a heads-up, though. The IRS did have my address slightly different than what I filed. I had abbreviated N. for “North”, but IRS did not have period after the N in their records for my address. So I did have to put my address into the form without that little period after the abbreviation for it to work. Try a couple different versions of your address if it isn’t working for you. Hope that might help someone else!</p>
<p>three4three,</p>
<p>we are having the same problem getting the link to work for my son. It worked for us, but not him. Also can’t get the Tax Transcript. He owed taxes as well, but they cashed that check on 22 Feb. I told him to call the IRS again today to see what the deal is. This is indeed ridiculous, even more so for us because he isn’t even trying to get financial aid as he has full scholarships, but still we have to do it. DUMB</p>
<p>Finally got D’s part to work. This time, I used a period “.” after our street name. Was that all it required? If so after trying every day for the past two weeks, GRRRRR.
So we did our initial Fafsa submittal on 1/26 using estimates. The updated submitted version with IRS data retrieval is 3/2 with her schools requiring stuff by 3/1. Are we late?</p>
<p>becksgirl – Regarding the transcript: We owed money. The IRS cashed our check Feb. 17. I was finally able to order the transcript today. (Previously, it was showing up as not available.) Hang in there!</p>