<p>Most of my colleges' financial aid deadlines are around mid-February. I'm pretty sure my mother can get her tax returns filed by Feb 10th, but there may be a few days in delay, would that be fine? </p>
<p>It might be wise to use estimates on the financial aid forms if possible, and then correct them when the tax returns come in. Missing the priority deadline for the financial aid forms can jeopardize your ability to get some forms of aid that can run out, so unless you have a reason to think that this year’s information will be so different than last year that you can’t estimate it I would recommend using estimates and then correct later.</p>
<p>No. It is not fine to be a few days late. Adhere to the deadlines. Use estimates if needed and then update when the taxes get done…get them done ASAP.</p>
<p>Call the school.</p>
<p>Not for the forms. I mean if the tax returns arrive a few days late.</p>
<p>I’m confused by your question. The schools don’t care about seeing the tax return forms unless you are chosen for verification. The priority is to make sure that financial aid forms themselves are completed by the deadlines; the exact day when the tax returns themselves are completed doesn’t really matter. If they come in before the deadline, then that’s great since you can just do it all at once, but if they come in after the deadline then you can use estimates first and then correct them afterwards.</p>
<p>I know that FAFSA and the CSS Profile has to be on time. I just meant the tax returns.</p>
<p>I think I definitely misunderstood your question. Is your school asking you to submit tax returns to them? </p>
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<p>This is a confusing statement. It may depend on the school, but most of the schools where my kid applied last year did ask for actual tax forms. Only one wanted us to wait until after acceptances went out in late March before asking for the tax forms (they only wanted them for accepted students). However, our experience was that the schools COULD wait a little bit for the forms (a few days). Most people don’t have all the paperwork to file until late January or early February (1099s, etc. just don’t arrive until then). </p>
<p>Talk to the financial aid office at each college where you are applying for FA and see what they say. Likely you will fill out the FAFSA with estimated numbers, then use the tool that pulls in actual info from the IRS later to update it. The CSS profile will be filled out with the best numbers you have, then you probably have to provide manual updates to those later (ick, I know). Then usually tax forms for 2014 will be sent to the college when they are ready (via iDoc or whatever other method the college dictates), but ask the school what happen if you miss the deadline for that.</p>
<p>My apologies for the confusion. I didn’t realize that there are many schools that asked for tax returns prior to admission. Thanks for the clarification!</p>
<p>Thanks. That’s all I needed to know. </p>
<p>Dmitri…um…you are not accurate. There are schools which require the tax returns as part of the financial aid application process for all stidents. If those are not received (on time) the file is considered incomplete until the documents ARE received.</p>
<p>Both of my kids’ colleges required tax returns as part of the financial aid application process. DS’s school actually requested two years returns…the FAFSA year and the prior year.</p>
<p>To the OP…please…contact the school and find out their actual deadline for receipt of the tax returns…then plan to adhere to that deadline.</p>
<p>My advice is slightly different. I have a small business, and we had one school that wanted returns by February 15. That was just not feasible. The forms needed to complete returns were not received until first week of Feb (banks are not required to send them until end of January). Then my accountant had to complete my business return, and numbers from that S-Corp return feed into my personal returns. Even though I gave my accountant a heads up and they turned around my business return much more quickly than usual, it was still not possible to meet the school’s deadline. I notified them, and their response was to get the returns in ASAP, which I did (I think around the end of February, maybe 1st week of March). So my advice is to keep the school informed, and ask your mom to finish her returns ASAP this year (and if she uses an accountant, let them know in advance she would like them to please get it done ASAP this year). Sometimes their dates just aren’t realistic, and you have to just get as close as you can.</p>
<p>The student should call the school and see what they say.</p>
<p>Many schools will be understanding of the tax return submission. Some won’t. The reality is that this kid and family knew this kid would be a college student this coming year…and that there were deadlines to meet. The family could have arranged to have a very early date with their accountant this year.</p>
<p>I will say, for self employed, this can be a challenge. Many self employed actually file for extensions and don’t complete their taxes until October. This can be very problematic for students who want to receive need based aid, especially if selected for verification. The schools will need either a tax transcript or link to the IRS data retrieval tool if that is part of the requested verification process. Without that…the school won’t disburse federally funded need based aid anyway…I’m not sure how firm they are with institutional funds!</p>
<p>Yeah I’ll mail them as soon as my mom finishes filing. </p>