<p>I’m wondering that too. I got out my return and typed it in exactly the way it’s listed on our return, which has abbreviated “Dr” instead of “Drive”. But tomorrow will be exactly two weeks so I’ll wait until then to try again.</p>
<p>I just tried again copy/pasting my address from the FAFSA, no dice :(</p>
<p>To those of you wondering if it’s an address issue, when I got our Tax Transcript, the IRS themselves had added a SW to my home address. When I added it into the IRS Data tool after that it would pull up my return, but it still never would transfer the info. That was the point where I kept getting the FAFSA error message.</p>
<p>The first time I called the finaid office at the university, the clerk was very rude and implied I had to use the IRS data retrieval tool because “we have nothing to do with the FAFSA web application, we’re just complying with federal regulations, and that’s how that data gets filled in.” (Although when I mentioned I could also fill them in manually, she kept avoiding giving me a real answer on if using it was required or optional. Obviously she had never filled out a FAFSA…)</p>
<p>I spoke to a clerk at FAFSA who was very sympathetic, but said “The tool is from the IRS website, we just link there to get the data and have nothing to do with how it is retrieved, but I’ve gotten lots of calls mentioning the same problem” and then referred me to the IRS.</p>
<p>I waited 30 minutes on hold with the IRS, and got a very eager-to-help clerk who tried a lot of different things to resolve the problem. After an hour or so on the phone, there was still no solid answer. She could pull up my records and see the return, but had no explanation as to why the data import tool was giving me an error. We went over my name and address character-by-character, and discovered that part of my (long) town name was abbreviated in their records, even though I had spelled it out in my return.</p>
<p>Armed with the abbreviation, I went back and tried it again. Abbreviated, uppercase, lowercase, not abbreviated…no luck with any of them, I kept getting the “does not match our records” error.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that if there is an error retrieving the data, it’s logged somewhere deep in the bowels of the IRS computers, but there appears to be nobody watching that error log or able to give assistance in troubleshooting or avoiding the errors. The university points the finger at FAFSA, who in turn point the finger at the IRS. The IRS has nobody available to help with that tool, so…if it doesn’t work, you’re out of luck.</p>
<p>I called the university back again and spoke to a different clerk who told me “Oh no problem, it’s just there for your convenience, you don’t have to use it. The only difference it makes is if you are selected for verification, there’s a little less info you have to provide if you imported the data from the IRS.”</p>
<p>So…I entered the data manually. Interestingly, when the student tax info section came up, it also failed on both of the kids’ data imports. I noticed that the kids’ ones had a ‘try again’ button, so there was another chance to try a few variations. After about 3 tries, it reverted back to the “your information doesn’t match ours” error, so I suspect after some number of fails, you just get locked out, and will never work. But…it’s just a theory, because there doesn’t seem to be anyone available to answer questions on what happens if it doesn’t work… :mad:</p>
<p>We’re never able to e-file so I assume I’m going to have to enter our FAFSA data by hand anyhow. I hope that alone doesn’t trigger verification, but if it does, it’s fine. Just another hoop to jump through.</p>
<p>This is a big issue in the financial aid community right now, as the problems you are experiencing are widespread. There is supposed to be a Dear Colleague letter posted on the IFAP website in the near future by ED to give some clarification and/or guidance. Stay tuned …</p>
<p>I’ll look for that kelsmom…I have tried almost every day for the past couple of weeks and so far, no dice.</p>
<p>My kids school makes absolutely no reference to the retrieval tool, I filled in the form manually and submitted without any attempt to use it because this was early Feb. and the tool was unavailable. The school asked for verification documents (as they always do for us) with no mention of the link…I sincerely hope this run of good luck continues as it appears that they are satisfied with all we’ve submitted.</p>
<p>My gut feeling is that the bugs will get worked out of this by the time I no longer need it. While it seems like such a nice idea in theory, the reality is that many families have a very short window of time to submit these forms and secure the best aid package; this doesn’t feel secure or reliable with so much at stake and so many error reports popping up. If financial aid offices really feel this will help them, perhaps they should consider pushing back their priority deadlines to allow for the errors, mismatches and migrain inducing moments to work themselves out.</p>
<p>Sadly, I too am having problems with the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. I was able to retrieve my children’s tax info on each of their FAFSAs, but cannot retrieve the info for my “Married-Filing Jointly” return. I e-filed my taxes 3 weeks ago. The error I get is “We are unable to provide you with your federal tax information.” Don’t know whether this means I need to wait longer, or if it means they’ll never be able to provide me that that information. The other thought I had: since my husband is the first person on the return and I am the “spouse,” I wonder if he should get a FAFSA pin and we should try retrieving the data under his pin/ssn. Thoughts on this? Should it matter which spouse tries to retrieve the data? So frustrated!!</p>
<p>colomom, No it doesn’t matter who tries to retrieve the data, as long as you have password and pin to submit. So many people are having problems. You might want to request a tax return transcript. If you call the IRS, and have a home fax machine , they’ll fax it to you. You can forego the data retrieval tool and fax info to the schools. Then, you’ll be covered.</p>
<p>^ Caltech will NOT accept a transcript in lieu of the data retrieval. </p>
<p>Also, you cannot obtain a transcript until your taxes have been processed.</p>
<p>Had the same problems as colomom. Retrieval worked for the 1 kid who filed 1040EZ. My tax information won’t come up…that same old message telling me I may have filed recently or not filed at all… I tried using both my pin with my SS# and Hubby’s pin with his SS#, but to no luck with either. I thought maybe there might be some trick to the way the address was entered (all caps, no caps, abbreviations, etc) but daughter’s worked fine exactly the way it was entered on her return. I’m guessing that IRS hasn’t finished processing our return - farm income, rental income, etc. Are other people with business income or lots of extra schedules finding that you are having trouble with the Retrieval Tool, or are people with simple returns running into the same wall?</p>
<p>Here is a question for you … if you have not yet been able to retrieve your FAFSA, did you owe the IRS money? Rumor has it tax transcripts take longer for those who owe than for those who are getting a refund. Apparently the IRS processes refund returns first, or so I hear. It would follow that these returns would take longer to access via the transfer link, as well.</p>
<p>Yep. We owe money to the feds AND we had some extra schedules. Like three4three, both of my daughters’ 1040EZ taxes were retrieved, but I cannot retreive our 1040. I guess I’ll keep waiting…</p>
<p>We owed taxes and we filed 1040 with a lot of schedules. Our taxes were sent regular mail and processed in 21 days. I think maybe, there are so many people trying to file online that the process has been delayed. I would call the IRS and see if taxes have been processed. ASA they are processed, you can proceed in whatever way you need to for your schools. We too, were told that because we owe, we got put to the bottom of the pile. Considering the time frame our taxes were processed, I don’t believe that rumor to be true.</p>
<p>We are getting a small refund, but I still get the “does not match” error when trying to retrieve the info. So I don’t think it has anything to do with whether you owe The IRS.</p>
<p>OMG - as I read this I figured I’d try once more and…IT WORKED!!! I was able to import mine and my S’ info.</p>
<p>We e-filed on Feb 4th. 1040, Schedule C and others.</p>
<p>now it’s making me feel like maybe I did something wrong. So many people are having issues with the IRS tool. When I did ours it seemed to have gone thru without any problems. I hope I didnt do anything wrong. For those who had issues, what was the error message that you received? would I know if it didnt work or do I just have to wait for the schools to contact me? thanks!!</p>
<p>Go to [Home</a> - FAFSA on the Web-Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.gov%5DHome”>http://www.fafsa.gov) and look at your SAR. If the info transferred, it will probably say that your information was transferred via the IRS link. If you can’t find that, call the school - they can see if it was linked - they get a message that tells them if you linked but didn’t import, if you linked and left the info unchanged, and if you linked and changed the info (not a good idea!).</p>
<p>I checked the fafsa site and reviewed the SAR, it doesnt show anything that says the way it was linked. I also called the school and they said that all they can tell me is that it is in the system and nothing is missing.</p>