<p>Me and my family are doing the IDOC right now. My parents are refusing to sign the tax forms claiming it is a massive overreach of personal information that they don't want to give. In addition they are refusing to attached the schedule to the IDOC. How will this affect financial aid at the schools that require IDOC? Will I get denied, will my application be delayed, will they come back asking for the forms? </p>
<p>You won’t get aid unless you provide the information required. </p>
<p>It’s your parents right to not provide the information. It’s also the school’s right to verify financial information before they give you any of their money in the form of financial aid. As long as your parents are fine with being full pay, they do not need to provide the information.</p>
<p>Second opinion, you will get zero aid. Your parents need to understand if the schools did not verify finances, people would get away with lying for aid. It is a necessary step. It is the choice of your parents.</p>
<p>Most likely there will be a delay and yes they will request the info again. Essentially, you are pushing yourselves to the back of the line. Everyone getting aid is required to complete this step. </p>
<p>So I should try to convince my parents to send them with everything else or just slip them into the IDOC packet? For the tax return tt is not like they aren’t sending the tax return they are just not signing it, it also has all the data for the the schedules on it. Why do the schools need the individual charitable donations and specific things anyways?</p>
<p>Ask your parents if they are willing and able to fund your education without any assistance (grants, loans, work study). If the answer is “yes,” then you don’t need to comply with the financial aid requirements. If the answer is “no,” tell them you will not get aid without compliance. It is that simple.</p>
<p>Can your parents pay the full cost of attendance at ALL of the colleges to which you applied? If so, why did they bother to even submit the FAFSA and Profile? </p>
<p>Most of their info is already “out there” to the colleges. The IDOC documents are used to verify that what you put on the Profile is accurate. </p>
<p>At some point, they will have to update the FAFSA with taxes completed info. They will need to link to the IRS retrieval tool. </p>
<p>As noted by others, you will NOT receive a penny of need based aid without a complete application package. Actually the school will not PROCESS your application for need based aid until it is COMPLETE. If this includes submitting documents to IDOC, and you don’t do so, you will get NO aid.</p>
<p>Also, the tax return must be signed. I forgot one year and had to resend my tax return with both parent signatures</p>
<p>There’s less to fear about your privacy than many realize. These are policies and procedures. Unless you end up with frequent phone calls or some complex issue, they won’t even remember you. If you buy a house or apply for a credit card, there is a similar verification. </p>
<p>The mortgage or credit card companies make profit on your debt. The colleges, otoh, are not. If you don’t need their funds- or if they cannot verify that- they would prefer to give it to other families with need. Or keep it and reinvest it. </p>
<p>obviously they aren’t full pay. </p>
<p>I totally get that the data is out there, too they are sending the 1040 just didn’t want to sign it to in my moms word “make a stand.” I just pointed out that doing this was just going to make the application have more scrutiny.</p>
<p>My parents are not submitting incorrect data its just that they-mostly my mom-just feel that this is a massive overreach, intrusive and unnecessary. She is not wrong either the colleges get the data in three or four ways, why don’t they just ask for the tax return from the very beginning. </p>
<p>The data on the css and all of these other institutional forms came right from the filed taxes I saw them do it and they used the irs tool to update the data.</p>
<p>I just printed off the other schedules and forms after the 1040 on the tax form and I will just sneak them into the folder, not that hard. I can’t make them sign the taxes tho, that will come back but should be a quick fix.</p>
<p>CSS or IDOC is a private company, so they don’t have data retrieval with the IRS like FAFSA does because FAFSA is a federal program.</p>
<p>Your mother can make a stand if she wants to, but she’ll lose and you’ll lose because you won’t get financial aid.</p>
<p>Little. If your college participates in IDOC, then you WERE asked for tax returns right from the beginning. IDOC requires these. If you completed a FAFSA, you also needed to use the IRS retrieval tool. Again…this isn’t a news flash as of the date of your IDOC instructions packet. </p>
<p>Your mom making a stand is going to prevent you from getting need based financial aid.</p>
<p>Why don’t you have her call the financial aid office at ONE school. Have her tell them “I’m not signing my tax forms when I submit to IDOC. Will this affect my student’s prospect of getting need based aid?” see what the college says. My guess is they will say…send a signed return, or we won’t process your aid. </p>
<p>Your mom is really putting you in a bind…a huge one. Where is your other parent on this issue? Are they both refusing to sign?</p>
<p>If so, create a list of community colleges you can afford to attend without any financial aid. Even the FAFSA will require your parents link to the IRS retrieval tool at some point.</p>
<p>Tell your mother this. When you and your parents ask for other people’s(taxpayers) or organization’s(colleges) money, they want proof of your family’s financial situation which does include very personal information and you have to follow their rules in providing the proof. If you and your parents don’t want other people’s money you don’t have to comply. Ask your parents whether or not they want other people’s money to help pay for your college.</p>
<p>Signing the copies of tax forms you send to IDOC is attesting that they contain true and accurate information. Without the signature(s) schools could assume the numbers aren’t accurate.</p>
<p>I love this expression: “Is this the hill to die on?”
If she wants to make a protest, there are other venues. Sorry but, with wisdom comes perspective. Would she really explain to friends and family that, by gummy, she wasn’t about to follow their requirements, even if it meant finaid and affording college for her kid(s)? </p>
<p>Btw, is this is a generous school, not one with paltry aid and loans?</p>
<p>The OP mentions USC on another thread. If this is about USC, they only give their generous need based aid to students who complete their financial aid applications. </p>
<p>ETA…you parents are frittering away time just to make a stand (and their stand is going to have NO impact on the policy in place of sending signed tax returns). What will happen, you will get some kind of notification that your IDOC documents are incomplete and you MUST send in signed returns and all schedules. But this will take TIME! </p>
<p>It is almost the beginning of March. Do you WANT a financial aid award from your colleges in time to make your May 1 matriculation decision…or not. It is cutting it close to send in the WRONG documentation, receive notification to send the correct documentation, and assume the school is going to jump through hoops to get YOU financial aid package done on time, when THOUSANDS of others get it CORRECT the first time…and by the deadline for IDOC.</p>
<p>Your parents are being very penny wise and pound foolish.</p>
<p>As long as you have an affordable option without aid, or are willing to take a risk about getting aid if your package isn’t ready (given YOU FAMILY’S desire to delay the process) then fine.</p>
<p>Remind them that their tax stuff is already out there since you say they already USED the IRS retrieval tool. </p>
<p>I have safeties that I can afford with merit. This is just for three generous top tier schools-including one I got into EA, which require the IDOC, not usc. USC has their own form for tax info that my parents did with no problem. I think the issue is just they are concerned about the security of the data and sending the entire tax form…I will talk to them some more. </p>
<p>My parents already used the irs tool to link the fafsa so thats already done. My mom in particular has less of a problem with the government for some strange reason…</p>
<p>Submit them signed or get no aid. Your mother can make her stand, and the school will make theirs-- no aid without the proper documentation. EVERYONE must follow the rules if you want aid. Simple as that. Unsigned forms will cause a delay.</p>
<p>Agree with above post. Your parents’ stand on not signing could result in a college stand of NO AID…because your documents were NOT submitted correctly ON TIME.</p>
<p>There are no secrets to what IDOC minimally requires. Minimally the signed tax return with ALL schedules is required. That is not a secret, and the IDOC requirement and deadline have been on your college websites for MONTHS.</p>
<p>If they won’t budge but not able to afford full-pay, if you get nothing from the school as a result, an option would be to defer for a year, work, and ask them not to claim you on their 2014 taxes. You could reapply for financial aid as an independent and give them all the materials they need. That, or go to a school with merit for 2 years and transfer… again, as an independent student.</p>
<p>Not ideal I know… just an option.</p>
<p>^ This is incorrect information. How a parent/student files taxes has no impact on their dependent/independent status for financial aid. With a few other exceptions, the OP will not be independent until age 24. </p>