<p>Fib = lie. Lie = fraud on this form. Fraud = felony. </p>
<p>Bank statements are required for verification. In all cases if they are not mailed they are available on line. Or you can request them for a fee.</p>
<p>You verify your accounts by contacting your bank or whoever else is holding your assets, unless you are in some Madoff type deals. They can give you a snapshot of your account balances for any give day. Easy enough to get if you need them, though a pain in the neck.</p>
<p>Fraud is “Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.”</p>
<p>If there will be no financial or personal gain, there is no fraud.</p>
<p>It may still technically violate the law to inaccurately fill out the FAFSA. I wonder how many people have actually been fined and/or sent to jail for it.</p>
<p>You are filling out a federal form. So the penalties can be quite high if you have inaccurate info on it, are questioned and lie about it. The government has gone after people for very little, to make a point. There are some doing time in Fort Devins due to Student Aid fraud.</p>
<p>
Really? I feel like you are overstating this. All I could find googling around were people who were committing massive fraud, like using stolen identities to get hundreds of thousands of dollars, or who are running fake loan rings, really egregious stuff.</p>
<p>I don’t believe the gov’t does stuff to make a point, because, really, (almost) no one is ever going to hear about it. So where is the deterrent? They are not going to waste time and money prosecuting something that was never going to get anyone any money anyway.</p>
<p>IMO of course, if you have actual examples I’d like to hear them.</p>
<p>momknowsbest3 - </p>
<p>1)You may be overestimating the relative value of your assets. Owning a few $million in real estate, especially in an area with high cost of living, is unlikely to make you a development prospect/target. </p>
<p>2)You do know that you can say no, right?</p>
<p>If someone lies on the FAFSA to decrease your EFC that is fraud. They are trying to gain more aid. </p>
<p>It’s pretty clear cut.</p>
<p>The penalties for providing false information on the FAFSA are severe. Per section 490(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 [20 USC 1097(a)], the penalties include a fine of up to $20,000 and/or up to 5 years in prison. These penalties apply both to attempts to receive and to the actual receipt of Title IV federal student aid through fraud, false statement or forgery. (The FAFSA also includes the following signing statement: If you purposely give false or misleading information, you may be fined up to $20,000, sent to prison, or both.) You will also be required to return all student aid, making it much more difficult for you to pay for college. Some colleges will expell students who submit falsified financial aid applications, as it is a violation of their honor code.</p>
<p>
In the case of the OP, they are not going to qualify for need-based aid, and already know it. They are trying to protect their privacy in the face of having to fill out the FAFSA for purely merit-based aid.</p>
<p>
[/quote]
These penalties apply both to attempts to receive and to the actual receipt of Title IV federal student aid through fraud, false statement or forgery.
[/quote]
So… if you are not attempting to receive gov’t money, or don’t receive any, there is no crime?</p>
<p>The way I was raised lie is a lie. There are no degrees of honesty.</p>
<p>Fooling around on the FAFSA can get you into trouble, just as it could to lie on your tax forms. Yes, you can go to jail for it, though it is very rare. There are those who are doing time who have systematically lied to get federal funds. THey won’t jail you for not paying your student loans back, but if you lied on the form to get them or used them illegally, yes you can be in big trouble and be fined big time and it won’;t be like defaulting on the loans. This is not someplace to fool around. PROFILE is one thing, FAFSA is a whole other game. Some pretty big names end up in jail for fooling around with the feds. </p>
<p>Yes, you can can audited for FAFSA/student aid involvement. Verification is usually no big deal, but a full audit, which is rare is like a tax audit and they will look to see all the ins and outs from your accounts. Get caught lying on this and the penalties can be stiff financially, in addition to having to repay the money. </p>
<p>Make no mistake about it. Lying on any federal form can have enormous consequences. There may be no degees of honesty to some folks, but there are degrees of penalties and this somewhere to keep thy nose clean.</p>
<p>I’m really really confused about how this thread started talking about fraud… How is not filling out the FAFSA fraud??? We are just savers. From the first year we were married we have saved: first by automatically saving with EE bonds, later by automatically investing in various accounts. Wehn he was in residency we lived off of his salary and then put all of mine as a teacher into savings… We have always lived WAY below our means. We’ve bought our one house and paid it off with no thought of living in a mansion. ETC So yes, we have a bunch in bank accounts. I have no idea to lie about it though, so all of this talk of fraud confuses me. That is why I asked if we had to fill it out.</p>
<p>Absolutely, not filling out FASA is not fraud. Filling it out intentionally with incorrect information is. </p>
<p>No one has to fill out FAFSA unless they want a shot at some of the benefits that can come from it. Just like you don’t have to fill out a mortgage application if you are not going to be buying a house. </p>
<p>I think someone was making light about the accuracy of what has to be on the form. Because it is a federal form, it is not one to take lightly. It’s in the same category as a tax return. Yes, you can be audited on the info you put on it.</p>
<p>I think I posted way back, that there is no reason for a family who does not want scholarships, loans or workstudy, to fill out a FAFSA. The only rec I have is to get the PINs and keep them in a safe place so you can move quickly and fill one out if you should change your mind. That is the part that takes time, getting the assigned PIN.</p>
<p>It started because of a remark about intentionally not reporting assets.</p>
<p>I never ever said I would not report an asset!!!</p>
<p>It was not your post.</p>
<p>OK- to get back to the OP’s original question… I have not read all of the comments so this may have been said already. If there is any possibility your kids may receive merit or talent scholarships, I would complete the FAFSA, even if you are not applying for need-based aid. I know that PSU does require a FAFSA as my D is a senior there on a talent scholarship. I believe most schools do require a FAFSA for scholarships, but you might want to call financial aid offices at each to check it out. Completing the FAFSA has become a very simple process that really does not take much time at all as long as you have your recent tax forms in front of you. I can’t see that it would hurt anything to complete one and send it to each school under consideration, and since there is a cut-off, it seems logical to do so now. BTW- good job planning for your kid’s college!</p>
<p>We did not complete the FAFSA for either S1 or D1. We have saved for their college educations since birth, plus our retirement, and we have long been debt free. If either of us loses our jobs, we will still not need their 529 funds for daily living. We don’t qualify for federal aid nor do we want them to take loans for undergrad, so we did not see the point.</p>
<p>Both dentkids earned merit scholarships at several LACs and there was no requirement for FAFSA completion at any of those schools.</p>
<p>It is a YMMV point. My DD1 received a NMF scholarship. I had to fill out the FAFSA for her freshman year (but not after that). IMO it was solely to make sure the student was given all chances for aid, but it was a requirement to receive the funding.</p>
<p>As I understand it if the university is willing to dip into their own money to give your child merit aid they want to make sure they give away as little of it as possible. therefore, if your child qualifies for free money from the government they want your child to take the government money first before they get the univeristy scholarships. That is why the rich are required to to fill out the FAFSA anyway. If is just to confirm that you are too rich for government money. It seems to me they could do the same thing with a check box that says do you make more than x amount of money? meaning the cut off point where you would NOT be getting anything from the government and it doesn’t matter if you are making $200K or $2 million. Which apparrently some schools have figured out and don’t require the FAFSA. Some schools are all about the offical forms and want that FAFSA. Bottom line if you don’t need or want merrit aid then you can skip it. Leave what money is available for those whose lives would be made easier.</p>