Oh well…for,the future…you can link to the DRT any time after your FAFSA has been processed (assuming the DRT is working).
So this year…either link when you file the fafsa…or do so ASAP after your FAFSA has been processed and submit again.
This is an extenuating circumstance…contact the college…and explain.
Even with the email reminding the deadline is looming (possibly auto-generated,) I highly doubt you’re the only one affected. Back when D1 was going to be a freshman, we got IDOC’d, had a legit delay, and the particular college told me they are flexible.
filed FAFSA in the fall using the DRT but now school is requesting an “updated” FAFSA and wants us to redo DRT (which obviously isn’t possible). Not sure what’s going on and I’m not getting any answers - or at least answers that make sense.
Updated fafsa…why? Was there something incorrect on your submitted one? The school can make that correction.
@thumper1 nope, nothing incorrect. Honestly I think the person we are dealing with just doesn’t understand the FAFSA changes. She’s not been overly helpful but we’ve been dealing through e-mail. We may be at phone call time.
FYI–Just saw an article on Forbes magazine that said the DRT tool is down and will remain so for several weeks. They either has some attempted hacks or security concerns and they said it would be offline for maintenance until they get that fixed. For anyone, like me, who has a deadline in the next few weeks, you’ll have to enter tax info manually from your 2015 returns.
When we did our taxes with Taxact and Turbotax, I think it gave the option of printing a FAFSA information sheet.
It lists the relevant info from your tax return like AGI, income from working, tax paid, education credit. It can be helpful.
I guess this is a life lesson for me to be sure to always apply early for FAFSA. I’m pretty much dead as I can’t travel to the school I am going to to give them my IRS information. I don’t trust that faxing it would work.
It can be done by fax, by email, by snail mail. ALL schools will be int he same position as the IRS tool is down for everyone. They want you to go to school there, they will work with you. Find out what you need to do - order a tax transcript? Email it to a certain person at the school?
The IRS has had a few highly publicized attacks against it. This is not all that surprising.
On the bright side, it is quite easy to just manually input the data and submit the FAFSA. Easy Peasy.
Before faxing, just check with the school.
Yes, I am having the same exact problem, and do not know how to fix it.
Can;t be fixed. It will be down for several weeks because of fraud. You must manually fill in the information and then prepare to be selected for verification.
I felt sure we used the DRT when we filed the FAFSA early in Jan. (My D is a continuing student). However her college asked for her to either do the DRT or provide a tax transcript. Since by then the tool was down we had no choice but to request a tax transcript from the IRS.
We had to request it by snail mail because really, how many teenagers have a cell phone in their own name? But I must ssy it came remarkably fast, about 2 weeks I think.
(I say “we” because I help my D with FinAid bureaucracy but she qualifies as independent, so they wanted her tax info not mine.)
It’s down for more than a few weeks:
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/announcements/irs-drt-unavailable
The DRT is likely to be down for the remainder of the financial aid cycle (until next October). You should contact your FA office for instructions of what to do. A tax transcript always suffices.
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According to info posted today, the DRT will likely be down until October…or so they say.
Anyone doing their fafsa now should also request a tax transcript.