I just used the IRS DRT for my fafsa and one of the things that were different was the tax return. It said that we got 0 dollars for the return even tho we got something, so we changed that. My questions are why did it change it to 0? And was changing it the right thing to do? Will this effect my chances of getting aid?
If you change the FAFSA, the DRT certification will vanish and you’ll have to submit a tax transcript. What will happen is that the SAR sent to the university will show that there is a difference between what you claim you reported and what the IRS certifies.
If the DRT information is wrong, it means there is an error in your tax record. You should contact the IRS.
https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1617/help/faahelp61.htm
The FAFSA does not ask about a tax refund, only tax paid amount and it references the line in your tax return form that you are to report.
See link above.
What was $0 with the DRT and not on the tax return? The DRT brings the numbers over right from the tax return.
If you change it later then the college will see that and will have to verify it.
mommdc is correct; FAFSA doesn’t ask about tax refunds, it asks for the “income tax amount” (for the student this is reported on FAFSA line 37, and for the parent(s) on FAFSA line 86).
If you change numbers brought over by the DRT, it is very likely the college will need to verify and you will have to send a tax transcript. And like mommdc said, FAFSA doesn’t include questions about refunds. You changed something you should’ve left alone. DRT numbers aren’t wrong unless the tax return itself is wrong.
Yikes - never change anything from the DRT! You might as well go ahead & order your tax transcript now … you are going to be asked for it eventually.
I shouldn’t have changed anything but at the time I didn’t know any better. What should I do know? Should I contact them and let them know of my mistake? Should I redo it?
You should go ahead and contact the IRS and order your tax transcript so it’s ready to send to your school when they ask for it.
@ordinarylives so redoing it won’t make a difference?
@mahambazz I would say just try it and see if you can run the data retrieval tool again. I don’t think you will hurt anything by trying…
I don’t think you will be able to run the DRT again…but it’s worth a try. But this time…don’t change a thing.
But at the same time, order that tax transcript.
I changed something on the DRT section. D’s scholarship “income” didn’t come through on that line. Her school has accepted it, so far, along with idoc, etc.
@OHMomof2, when it asked for AGI, I put the total income from work and taxable scholarships (which was both listed on wages line). Then when it asked for income from work I put the same number. Then in question 44 d I put amount of taxable scholarship.
But I think you mentioned before that your tax software didn’t enter the taxable scholarship on the wages line? Maybe that’s the reason the DRT didn’t bring it over.
It did come through on the wages line (included in the larger # that had her wages form work also) but not on the “part of agi that’s scholarship” line.
ETA: yes, 44d. But the DRT didn’t put it there.
I left AGI alone as it came in from tax form but changed “income from work” on 39 and then 44d to reflect what was work and what was scholarship.
I suppose I’ll hear about it from her school if there’s an issue, but they have her tax forms anyway via idoc.
I just ordered a transcript to be sure.
@OHMomof2, I don’t think the DRT filled in line 44d, I think you have to do that yourself.
As fas I remember it put “transferred from IRS” for AGI, tax paid, education credit for parent return and AGI, tax paid for student return.
I talked to @kelsmom about this before but I think AGI and “income from working” has to be the same if you have income from W2 and taxable scholarship. Then line 44d will list the taxable scholarship amount and it will be subtracted from AGI, leaving only work income.
The issue is when you change any fields the DRT brought over from tax return, they have “transferred from IRS” or something like that next to it.
Some things the DRT does not fill in like income from working if there is parent 1 and 2 and a joint return, how would the DRT know how much each parent made if AGI lists total income?
The ISIR, which is what the school receives when a FAFSA is processed, contains codes related to the DRT. Schools screen for the three codes that indicate the tax info was transferred via DRT & subsequently changed.
If the FAFSA is selected for verification & the parent 1 + parent 2 self-reported income from work does not match the total income from work brought over via the DRT, the FAA has to request W2 forms (it’s “conflicting information”).
Either way I’ve ordered the transcript yesterday. But how does this effect scholarships, for example I got the psi from vtech and they were asking for verification. Will they get suspicious and take it back? Or will this just slow things down. There is only 3 weeks left until the deadline for picking a college and I feel like this will hurt me in the long run. And thank you all for your help.
You can ask them if a copy of tax return will work for now until tax transcript arrives.