quick fafsa question

Paying for College
1

<p>first time doing it a senior oldest in family parents and i are immigrants.</p>

<p>just wondering is it hard doing it without ur parents doing your taxes? like doing calculations urself. i will have to do it most likely</p>

<p>i know parents should have done taxes but my dad didnt get his bank statements till he went to the bank and complained about not recieving and our tax guy is busy for a week. </p>

<p>so question is how hard is it to do it alone before doing taxes?</p>

<p>parents just work no stocks no investment.</p>

2

<p>use their last pay stubs from 2008 and bank info.</p>

<p>You don’t do the calculations. You put the numbers in, the program does the calculations for you</p>

3

<p>It could be kind of hard to do the FAFSA without their help and without their taxes. It depends on how complicated their taxes are.</p>

<p>Are they self-employed? You already said they don’t have stocks or investments. So, I’m assuming they don’t have real estate either (except possibly their own home). If they don’t own their own business and they don’t have stocks, real estate investments, or other investments, their taxes could be relatively straight forward.</p>

<p>Have they considered doing their taxes themselves? If their taxes are straightforward, they could simply purchase a copy of Turbo Tax software at any office supply store, Target, Wal-Mart, even grocery stores, or online, and do their taxes themselves.</p>

<p>The program will walk them through every step. There are self-help features within the program. It’s very, very easy to use. Their taxes could be done within a day’s time, or a half a day’s time, depending on what other deductions they can take. (For instance, if they have employee business expenses to deduct – uniforms, union dues, work equipment, work travel, etc. – or high medical expenses to deduct, or complicated charitable donations, then their taxes could take them up to a full day’s time. If not, they could be done in half a day! If their itemized deductions don’t exceed the standard deduction – ie, basically if they don’t own their own home or any property, then their taxes could be done in an hour or two! Really. It’s that simple to use!)</p>

<p>If they have absolutely no complications to their taxes – don’t own their own home, don’t have any investments of any sort what-so-ever, aren’t self-employed, don’t have really high medical expenses, don’t have large amounts of employee business expenses – then they can get away with the most basic version of Turbo Tax (Basic). Otherwise, in most every case other than self-employment, they can get away with the next step up – Turbo Tax Deluxe. If they DO itemize deductions, they can deduct the cost of the Turbo Tax as well. </p>

<p>Once they finish their taxes with Turbo Tax, they will have the choice to electronically file them or print them and mail them. Even if they owe more money to the IRS, they’ll be able to electronically file now and PAY later! So there’s little to lose. Either way, whether they file now or later, mail them via snail mail or submit them electronically, they can print out a copy as soon as they’re done if they want to, and YOU can use the numbers on their tax forms to complete your FAFSA!</p>

<p>You could be done by Sunday evening, easily … assuming that their tax situation is not complicated by investments, high medical expenses, self-employment, etc.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

4

<p>you don’t need to buy tax software. You can use one of many free efile sites or taxactonline.com. Even their deluxe version (all done online) is under $20</p>

5

<p>ok here they just have a friend who knows wat hes doing so he lets him do it</p>

<p>we do own a house and 3 cars but i thought ur own home doesnt consider as an investment. </p>

<p>and the guy said hes busy for the next week… so im kinda upset with my dad. so if i want to help him just do it is that complex or just couple adding subtraction?</p>

6

<p>your house(the one you live in) and cars aren’t part of the fafsa. If your parents own other property, that is considered.</p>

<p>You can use the online tax programs for free and don’t have to pay until you file. The tax programs and the fafsa do ALL the math for you. You only enter the data</p>

<p>Are you a US citizen? You mentioned you are immigrants, that is why I ask</p>

7

<p>Your house is not considered an “investment” for tax or FAFSA purposes. The only reason I mentioned it is that if they DIDN’T own their own home, taxes would likely be a breeze, because they wouldn’t likely file for any itemized deductions. If they DO own their own home, that increases the likelihood that they’d benefit by itemizing deductions when filing their taxes – which simply takes a little more time and is a little more complicated. That’s all. You’re correct in thinking that it’s not an “investment” for your purposes.</p>

<p>I’ve never used the free tax efile sites that sueinphilly recommends. I only recommended Turbo Tax because I’ve used it for my own somewhat complicated taxes since it came out decades ago, and I really like it. You can wait until your parents file with their usual guy, or you can suggest that they do their own taxes using any site or software you might like, or you can use your parents’ end of year paychecks and bank info to estimate the FAFSA data unti their taxes are done. Lots of options.</p>

8

<p>Go to irs.gov, and see FreeFile on the left hand side. Click on that, and it will give you a choice to choose a free online tax program. Scroll down the list (there are at least 20) and choose one you like. I have been recommending HR Block for several years to students, just because everyone remembers it. When you click on that link, it warns you and takes you OUT OF the IRS website, but only by going to HRB (for instance) THRU the IRS website, do you you get to do it for free. It is free if your income is under $54,000. And yes what previous posters have said–the online and elec. tax programs walk you right thru it, and if you don’t trust them, you follow along from your last years taxes (usually things don’t change much year to year, or didn’t) and check it.</p>

<p>This is also good for students, that would be many of you, to do your own taxes for the first time. About the only complicated question is If you have been claimed as a dependent by someone else. I deal with unstructured inner city families who have not had much experience with taxes, and their youth need to be empowered to manage them.</p>

<p>Just watch out for HRB–after free fed. taxes, they try to lead you to do state taxes, and then charge $29 for doing it! At least in my state, state online taxes are free.</p>

<p>And don’t forget your password and user name for the tax program you choose!</p>

9

<p>^^^Very cool, radimom. I did not know I could do this! Thanks for the how-to.</p>