So Im set to go to a community college and everything was working great untill i got a email about needing to verify information the other day. I though no big deal. I did the froms it asked me to fill out, I sent in my electronic tax info and today i got a copy of my w2 from my employer in 2015. AWESOME! im ready to go to the campus and sort ever- wait whats this my w2 doesn’t match my taxes. The back ground on this screw up is 2015 was my first year filling taxes and my first year for alot of things. So feb 2015 starts to come to a end and i still hadnt gotten my w2 in so i asked my boss and he tells me the accountant messed up just use your stub from the last week in December and we will get it mailed to you soon. so I do just that and everything goes good and i get a very decent refund check. now i know why Instead of just entering the money i paid into fedral taxes i put in the total taxes for everything but state. so my taxes say i paid 2000 more in federal tax then my w2. Now im panicking I never heard anything from the IRS and until a few hours ago the fear of hearing from them never came in to my mind.
and now i have no clue if i should go through with going to college i want to go to this engineering program but now im terrified that if i go in with my w2 im going to be arrested I wasnt trying to defraud anyone no one ever taught me how to file taxes hand to god i thought Medicaid and SS were federal programs so they went in to the federal box
Well, they are federal programs, but the deductions from your pay for Medicare and Social Security are not federal income tax payments. But you know that now. You will need to file a 1040X (amended return) for 2015, and it sounds like you will owe quite a bit of money, plus you will owe interest and penalties for the underpayment/late payment of your 2015 federal taxes.
If you aren’t sure what you are doing, go to a professional, reputable tax preparer and get this fixed. And then educate yourself so that this doesn’t happen again and you can do your own tax return going forward without paying someone else to do what is usually a pretty simple exercise. You won’t get arrested for fessing up and fixing what sounds like an honest mistake.
after I file the amendment do i just explain to the school that i made a mistake and its being fixed or should i wait until next semester before trying to attend?
No, once you get the taxes amended, you can give the school a copy of the original tax return, your W2 and the 1040X (amended return). They should be able to process your aid.
Once you have the tax return amended, you will have to change the AGI, income from working and tax paid in your FAFSA by hand since you can’t use IRS retrieval tool in FAFSA.
But you should not do your taxes without a W2. In a tax prep software program you usually have to fill out all fields for the W2 exactly how they appear on the W2, that way everything should be correct. I agree with Belknappoint, take your original tax return and W2 to a tax preparer and get help doing the amended return.
The employer is required to send the W2 by the end of January, if it is incorrect, they are required to send you a corrected W2 asap. Just keep after them. If necessary contact the IRS for help if employer won’t send it.
this semester is about 1500 the way the advisor was talking i should get a pell grant that covers it all becuase my efc is 0000* i just downloaded the amendment forum so i should wait untill the IRS processes it before going to the school right?
I believe you can amend the fafsa ONLINE. So…amend the taxes. Then log back into your FAFSA. Make all the changes necessary to reflect accurate numbers from your tax return. I believe you will be able to do,this. Then resubmit.
When you do,those taxes again and submit…order a tax transcript. You might need that also,
It sounds like the FAFSA including the AGI and federal tax liability might all be correct. The OP only states that he reported the wrong amount of federal income tax withheld. He doesn’t say he reported the wrong amount of wages.
If the only mistake on the tax return is overstated amount of federal income tax withheld, resulting in an inaccurate refund, then there is no effect on the FAFSA.
The 2015 1040 still must be amended ASAP and payment made.
What’s the amount in Box 1 Wages on the W-2? What amount is on the tax return for job earnings?
The amount I made was correct the only error that i know of was me putting Medicaid and such in the federal tax box the amount earned was 25,482 and i got a fedral refund of 1,873 and a state of about 120 all my return info was ported from the irs site to my fasfa so my accutal income is correct on it its just i was scared the advisor would look at my fasfa witch shows the wrong refund and my w2 that shows the right ones and be like wait here i have to go make a phone call
The refund and withholding amounts are not reported on the FAFSA. The FAFSA won’t need to be changed after the return is amended. The error does not have any effect on the FAFSA.
Even though you entered the wrong amount in the ‘taxes withheld’ line, the refund may have been correct. Often the IRS corrects math mistakes and incorrect entries and makes the adjustment before the refund. If you have the W2 and return, check it.