We don’t have any super complicated issues like you do, and the NPC still generated really different numbers for different schools. Princeton was the cheapest, then Stanford, then Yale was weirdly high. I’m also trying to figure out how trustworthy the NPCs are. People keep saying HYP give great aid, but Yale was not even close to Princeton–and was unaffordable for us.
That’s really useful info! Thank you 
Princeton is known for giving great FA, Yale not so much, you can only get more out of Yale if you get accepted to another Ivy League (preferably Princeton!) and ask them to match, which they usually will.
Thanks for that information @CU123
Seems tricky to try to get into both Princeton and Yale! But good to know it isn’t just us.
I’m sure it has to do with the graduate schools that Yale, Harvard and others have to support and to attract the top graduates who are mostly broke and independent of their parents at that point, they need a lot of money. Just speculation.
The main thing from an NPC standpoint is to list the income somewhere. I recommend you put it in the standard ‘parent income’ box. The Profile has a box where you enter the amount of FEIE. This will counteract where you entered the FEIE as a loss/deduction in your taxes.
You will almost certainly be flagged for verification, but that’s ok, not a problem. They’ll want to see all the justification for the low AGI, low taxes, high income, etc.
It is income that the schools will factor into your ability to pay. Use a ‘sanity check’ when filling out the NPCs to make sure all your income and assets are accounted for and your results will be at least in the right neighborhood. If you included the income and then listed it again as ‘untaxed from OTHER SOURCES’ as a ‘positive number’, that doesn’t pass the ‘sanity check’.
As an FYI, here is the flow of how a hypothetical 150k in FEIE will be handled in the Profile in the specific Profile boxes from this year (they may change next year):
wages from 1040 line 7 150k PI-105A
other taxable income/loss from 1040 line 21 -150k PI-125A
amt of FEIE from Form 2555 line 45 150k PI-220A
notice that the net result is a positive 150k.
Edited to add: Your folks may have a large housing allowance that could be a significant benefit. Be sure to add that in when doing the NPCs too. Schools may handle this differently (like they do home equity), but they will likely add that in to increase the actual income for the year.
And if your parents are contributing to a tax deferred retirement plan…add those conteibutionsnin as well.
And here’s a suggestion for a “down and dirty” estimate- my suggestion is to use Princeton as the case study since they are reputed to be the most generous U in the US and if you STILL aren’t qualifying for aid at Princeton, you likely won’t get it at the other Ivies…
Using a tax table (google an estimator) figure out what your parents gross income would have been if they earned in the US, in USD, and it was taxable. (so you will gross up your parents actual income by what they would be paying in US taxes- Federal, state and local, plus FICA). So if they make 200K now tax free, depending on where you live, the tax estimator might tell you they’d need to earn 300K gross to net 200K.
Then run your numbers with the higher figure, and fill out the form as if they had NO foreign income at all… but all US income, and all taxed at the typical federal, state, local rates, plus paying their share of social security. If you are getting zero aid this way, I suspect that once you’ve dealt with the colleges and explained your situation, you’ll STILL be getting zero aid.
This isn’t 100% accurate, obviously, but is a quick reality check for you. I know a few people who work for the World Bank, UN and other organizations which are triple tax exempt and they’ve used this method just to keep their sanity. If your family is still earning too much for aid anywhere, you know what to do… get a range of affordable options on your list, and pick one or two of the mega generous schools “just in case” you get in and can talk them into some need based aid, assuming that a merit school is going to be your most affordable option.
Good luck.