Parent's Income on the CSS Profile

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi all! I submitted the CSS profile today, and I've been getting a circular, non-answer answer from CollegeBoard and I am getting increasingly frustrated with this question, so I thought I'd come to some of y'all (hopefully) for help!</p>

<p>One of the CSS profile questions is:

[QUOTE]
Estimate the income parent 1 earned or expects to earn from work in 2012 using his or her 2012 W-2 form(s) Box 5 if he or she has received them; if Box 5 is blank, or he or she did not receive a W-2, estimate using your parent's 2011 IRS Form 1040, lines 7, 12, and 18 and IRS Schedule K-1 (Form 1065), Box 14 (Code A) (if lines 12 or 18 are negative, treat them as zero); and pay stubs and other income documentation for 2012. If your parents filed a joint return, use only parent 1's portion of lines 7, 12, and 18 and Box 14 to estimate. (Parent 1 is the parent you entered in PD-105.)

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>The first time I submitted, I put in the wage less 401k contribution, or what was in Box 1, since that is the income we report on our taxes. As I was reviewing it afterwards, I caught that it was Box 5, which is the box for Medicare wages, which is the wages with 401k contribution.</p>

<p>I called CB, and their not-answer answer is that if I have yet to file the 2012 tax returns (as have most people), to use Box 1 on 2011's W-2s, but if I have filed the 2012 returns, to use Box 5? The income reporting difference in this case is a little over 7.5k, and that seems like a huge difference in parental income to be reporting differently!</p>

<p>I'm confused about using Box 5 because later on, we do report tax-exempt income and the 401k contribution, so are they asking me to double-count? Not quite sure.</p>

2

<p>Chany’s “Paying for College Without Going Broke” states that this question is used for them to estimate the amount of social security and medicare taxes you paid. So this is really a question about your <em>expenses</em> and thus you would indeed (want to) include the 401K income.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for that-- and for looking it up-- I really appreciate it. I ended up calling two financial aid offices (and one is calling me back), and almost crying because at one point I had a bed full of financial aid documents and envelopes and things to copy, aaaaand again, I appreciate the looking it up in that book and the help. (:</p>

<p>Now I only wish I had caught it before I submitted it online, but at least the envelopes are all ready to go!</p>

4

<p>The financial aid applications are hugely stressful, even for folks who are used to doing their own taxes and generally handling financial matters on their own. </p>

<p>The only good thing is that this will be easier next year because (a) you’ll have your old forms to reference, and (b) you’ll have a later deadline!</p>

<p>Good luck with everything!</p>