Probably a dumb question, but I’m not really clear on the whole making corrections on the fafsa thing, if the student/parents used tax forms from the previous year. In my case, I filled out my 2015-2016 fafsa using the information from my mother’s 2013 tax form. It says on the website that if you use the 2013 forms instead of 2014 forms, I’m expected to go back and make corrections once my mom has filed her taxes for 2014. Considering I’ve already been awarded my Pell Grant and all the other need-based aid my college awards based on fafsa info, do I really need to go back and make any changes? The info on my mother’s 2014 forms is essentially the same as it was the year before, so I don’t really understand why I would need to
Yes, you need to update. Your award is an estimated award based in your estimated FAFSA. You MUST update your FAFSA to indicate that your taxes have been filed, and resubmit it. If it has been more than three weeks, you can link to the IRS data retrieval tool to port over the 2014 tax return numbers.
The FAFSA you filed with 2013 tax numbers says “will file” for your tax filing status. You need to update it to reflect that you HAVE filed.
Either the awards your school has listed are still estimates or you erroneously put your Mom’s tax status as ‘already completed’ even though you used 2013 numbers. In any case, as said, you need to have the tax status as ‘already completed’ if it isn’t now and update with 2014 numbers. Essentially the same numbers isn’t good enough, you need the exact numbers. As mentioned, using the fafsa DRT if enough time has passed since your mom filed is the easiest, most accurate way to do this.
Thanks everyone! I’m glad I asked. I was just confused because I received no “you need to go back and update your fafsa or else you won’t get your scholarships” kind of notifications from my school, which I figured they would do seeing as I seem to get email notifications for just about everything else. I went back and checked, and I did choose the “will file” option, so that’s not the issue. Anywho, I plan on going back and making updates this weekend. Thanks for the info