<p>When my husband got his job yrs ago, he bought the company stock for awhile, then quit buying it, we kinda forgot all about it, I guess we have it reinvested every single year, and the interest is growing, we have no idea how much we have, silly, we must look into it I guess. We just got our 1099 with "Total ordinary Dividends" & "Qualified Dividends" both saying 34.79 Everything else says "0" in those Dividends & Distributions box. Confused about how any of this is supposed to be reported on the FAFSA. Income, Assets, separate place for Stock, maybe only the interest has to be reported? Does this hurt with Financial aid, etc? Thank you</p>
<p>Normally value of the stock is an asset and dividends on the stock are income. If stock is just growing in value, but not paying dividends, that growth is not income. So you have $34.79 dividends/income in regard to that stock but the value of the stock is an asset. </p>
<p>When you say employer stock though, is that stock options or did he buy stock shares at market rate? Stock options make it more complicated.</p>
<p>I don't remember the exact boxes, but it DOES get counted as assets (the whole bunch), and yes, it will affect your EFC, the amount that gets calculated that you can afford to pay toward school. (They calculate that you could sell some portion of it to fund college). I assume you've gotten at least year-end statements re this stock? Finding how much you've got shouldn't be difficult to do.</p>
<p>So far finding out what we got has been a real hassle, the toll free number listed on the 1099 told us he can not tell us much, that we have to call the human resources Dept of his company to get any info, even though it seems to say we can access this information from that VERY toll free number and website. BUt couldn't. It is probably only about $4,000 at the most, last year, it appeared to be around $2,000. I have NO idea what a "Stock option" is ???? The rep that couldnt tell me anything about it, did explain that we were getting DISCOUNTED Stock, not market value stock??? Does this mean anything? So how much would they expect us to pay having this possibly $4,000 with $37 interest dividends?</p>
<p>Does FAFSa ask value of the stock, cause How would I know this, doesn't this change all the time, that rep I was just talking too make it sound like all he could tell me was shares, or something, that he could put no money value on anything. Does FAFSa ask for a money value of stock on the form somewhere?</p>
<p>OverRun -- If you guys don't want the options I'll be happy to take them. If your stock appreciated 100% over the past year I think I'd like to look into this further!</p>
<p>stock options are when you have the rights to buy stock at a certain price. For instance, employees might get the rights in 1999 to buy 100 shares of company stock at the 1999 price of $50.00/share. Sometimes the rights have to "vest" so the employee does not have the right to exercise the options right away. Sometimes they expire after a certain # of years. If these 100 options are exercised in 2009 when the stock price is $100.00/share, the employee is treated as having $5,000.00 of taxable income (the difference between market price and discount price). I'm not sure how they are valued for financial aid purposes, especially if they are partially vested...they're more like deferred income than an asset. They'd be worth zero if company stock went down between the time option was given and the present. But recognize that owning 100 stock options of XYZ stock is NOT the same as owning 100 stock shares of XYZ stock.</p>
<p>The FAFSA directions do say to count the value of the stock option as an asset though.</p>
<p>note, however, if the company stock is held in a retirement-type account, it is not reportable for fafsa. For tax reasons, my former company paid out dividends on our retirement account stock, so it can happen.</p>
<p>What I am asking about is set apart different than our 401K plan, I do understand that is not counted as assets. This is what I found on the company website, I guess it is considered a "EMployee Stock Purchase Plan". I still have no clue if this is considered Stock options or what? all husband did was sign a paper to have so much taken out of his check for this company stock years ago, they did this for a few years, then discontinued the program--no more out of paychecks, so obviously we still have whatever is in there being reinvested on a regualar basis. We know nothing about special discounts within special years, etc-as this Stock options thing was explained. ON company website, explained like this: " Direct stock purchase plan through which you can begin to invest in "XYZ" (company) , or as an existing shareholder, continue to increase your holdings in the company - all without paying brokerage commissions. The Plan is an easy and convenient way to establish and grow a meaningful equity ownership in XYZ Corporation."</p>
<p>Hudson: No, I doubt my stock went up THAT much, I was just giving a Ceiling price. Since I can not get any answers to what it is worth. I did find a Oct 2007 paper around here, Closing Share Value was listed as $2,816 I guess this is the figure they will want on the FAFSA counted as Assets? I do not recall getting one of these in Dec this year. Is estimates OK on Fafsa with this kind of thing, since it changes daily?</p>
<p>OverRun<br>
If he was having money taken out of his paycheck then this isn't stock options that weren't exercised. He owns the stock. Assuming it is publicly traded you should be able to take the October 2007 paper and find the number of shares then find the current price per share. The asset would be the number of shares times the current price.</p>
<p>Overrun:</p>
<p>You'll need to check with HR, unfortunately. My former company had two ee stock purchase plans -- one was in a "retirement" account, and one was not. The latter would be reportable on fafsa, while the former is not.</p>
<p>If the current value of the stock (outside a retirement plan) is only a few thousand dollars, it probably won't impact your EFC. Parents get an asset protection allowance (generally around 40K). So unless you've got a bunch of other reportable assets (checking/savings ect) it won't matter if it's $2826 or $3826. So don't sweat it-- on the day you fill out the FAFSA give your best estimate of its value (number of shares times current price).</p>
<p>I have stocks and I have a question</p>
<p>If I report my stocks, will my EFC go down?</p>
<p>Can FAFSA check if I have stocks or not?</p>
<p>OverRunWithSons-it sounds like you do have stock shares, not stock options, so PROBABLY you just take the share value, multiply by # of shares and include that as an asset, and include the $37.00 in income</p>
<p>Phead128 -You need to report stocks you own outside a retirement account as an asset, and like any other additional asset, that will probably make your EFC go down. The financial aid evaluators can ask you to verify all your data, so they can check your tax forms, on which you should be reporting stock dividends, or get brokerage account statements. If you own stock in a publicly traded company that doesn't pay dividends, that can still be traced through your SSN. So be honest about disclosing all your assets.</p>
<p>I'm confused, won't having stocks (more assets) make your EFC go UP???</p>
<p>orchestra mom -YES!!!!! I'm sorry, more assets make EFC go up...it's counterintuitive, up should be a good thing...I apologize, can't edit.</p>
<p>Having stocks will only make your EFC go up if your assets exceed the parental asset protection allowance. For many families, that isn't the case.</p>
<p>Stocks =Liquid (accessible at any time) = EFC UP</p>
<p>If this is a publicly traded company, all you have to do is determine the # of shares you own, then look up the share value on the NASDAQ or NYSE or wherever it is listed, that is an asset you need to declare on FAFSA- UNLESS it is within a retirement plan which your HR department should be able to answer</p>