<p>Working on my first fafsa. We farm, so we own land and machinery - this doesn't count toward assets? what exactly does? I know money in checking, do vehicles? We don't have a lot other than the land, buildings and machinery - but all that is for farming. We also have quite a bit in checking right now because we haven't had a lot of expense yet this year - but suppose it all counts as of right now? Thanks!</p>
<p>If you have a lot in your bank acct right now, and it’s needed for farm expenses, you should buy what you can ahead of time to minimize your bank acct. However, if the amount that you have in your acct isn’t large…say under $25k…it may not hurt your EFC at all if you don’t have other reportable assets.</p>
<p>Here are the instructions cut and pasted from the FAFSA web site:</p>
<p>“Business and / or investment farm value includes the market value of land, buildings, machinery, equipment, inventory, etc. Business and / or investment farm debt means only those debts for which the business or investment farm was used as collateral.
Business value does not include the value of a small business if your family owns and controls more than 50% of the business and the business has 100 or fewer full-time or full-time equivalent employees. For small business value, your family includes (1) persons directly related to you such as a parent, sister, or cousin or (2) persons who are or were related to you by marriage such as a spouse, stepparent, or sister-in-law.
Investment farm value does not include the value of a family farm that your parents live on and operate.”</p>
<p>If you live on the farm and operate it you don’t have to report it at all.</p>