Retirement IRA transfer/rollover to another IRA counted against us?

<p>As it stands we have been disqualified now for a Cal Grant that had been previously awarded.</p>

<p>Friday, the college fin aid office made a change to our FAFSA on line 93f from a previous $0 to much higher number, changing our EFC from around $6000 to around $30,000. </p>

<p>They pulled the amount from our 1040, line 16a.</p>

<p>The initial deposit to the business IRA was made a few years ago, not in 09. Because of the transfer/rollover in 09 to a different IRA they are counting this number against us. </p>

<p>It's a retirement account. My understanding has been that retirement accounts aren't counted against us as income. We neither deposited nor withdraw any of these monies in 09, it was merely a rollover.</p>

<p>I'd received help in filling out the FAFSA initially from the fin aid office and the FAFSA office. I truly don't remember who had me put a 0 in 93f, but I'm hoping this is a mistake that can be remedied - soon.</p>

<p>Anyone knowledgeable in this arena?</p>

<p>If you did a trustee-to-trustee rollover of your IRA, then you should not have reported a distribution on your 1040. And if it was an IRA distribution, it would have been on 15a, not 16a. Can you clarify?</p>

<p>At any rate, based on your saying you simply rolled over an IRA, you should correct your 1040 to report zero for an IRA distribution and submit a corrected 1040 to the IRS, then correct the FAFSA.</p>

<p>I am going to assume you mean line 15a. Going on that assumption: If the amount reported on line 15a is not actually noted on the 1040 as a rollover, financial aid officers are required to count it as untaxed income … it is assumed that you took an untaxed distribution if it’s not clearly marked as a rollover. That will hurt you a lot! We are required to count the difference between line 15a & line15b as untaxed income UNLESS we know that it’s from rollover. Taxpayers generally note on the 1040 “Rollover” next to line 15a, or they will submit documentation to us indicating that it’s from a rollover. Contact the finaid office to discuss this with them.</p>

<p>I do not have the 1040 in front of me right now, but this was the e-mail I’d received from the fin aid counselor:</p>

<p>“Line 16a on your 2009 1040 has $<strong>,</strong>* for pension and annuities. This is placed under Untaxed Pension on the FAFSA, which was not on your original FAFSA.”</p>

<p>I will ask the investor on Monday about whether it was a trustee-to-trustee’ - and our CPA about the rest you two are bringing up.</p>

<p>Oh, it WAS on 16a. Yes, the aid office was required to count that as untaxed income. The rule is the difference between 16a & 16b has to be counted as untaxed income.</p>

<p>I agree with vballmom, that it should never have been reported on taxes in the first place. At least that’s what I did (upon the advice of my financial advisor) when I rolled over a 403B to a Traditional IRA last year. I got a statement on it, but it said that no money was distributed; therefore, none had to be reported for tax purposes.</p>

<p>It sounds like it was a pension distribution, not a rollover IRA, given that it was reported on line 16a of the 1040. Maybe the OP can come back after she talks to her CPA to clarify.</p>

<p>It was a KBS REIT 2 IRA, transferred to an IRA. The investor described it to me over the phone yesterday as a ‘rollover’. The monies were transferred from one acct. to the other - never coming to us first.</p>

<p>The KBS REITs seem pretty illiquid. Is it possible that the REIT was liquidated and not rolled over to another IRA within the IRS-mandated 60-day period? Otherwise it just doesn’t make sense to my why your CPA would have put the proceeds on line 16a as this should not have been a taxable event.</p>

<p>DH has rolled over TSA/IRA plans several times upon changing jobs. These have never been “taxable events” as they were done within the alloted time and were direct rollovers to other tax deferred retirement accounts. </p>

<p>Why was this reported on your 1040? Did you receive some kind of unearned income statement from your IRA that indicated that it had to be reported as income on line 16? </p>

<p>I think the OP needs to check everything related to this transfer AND related to the tax filings to see if it all is correct.</p>

<p>OP, what tax forms did you receive about the rollover?</p>

<p>For my rollover, I received a Form 1099-R, and while it shows a Gross Distribution amount in box 1; in box 2a, the Taxable Amount is 0 since it was a direct rollover from trustee to trustee.</p>

<p>We have the 1099-R, and both box 1 as well as 2a have the same figure. I’m wondering why there isn’t a 0 dollar amount now in 2a for the taxable amount, while on the 1099 16b is 0…???</p>

<p>Do you know what the 1099-R form is, exactly? Does the R stand for rollover?</p>

<p>Update:</p>

<p>This morning I spoke again with the investor to make sure this was not liquidated, and that it was indeed rolled over within the alloted time period. He did verify that it was indeed a rollover done in the allotted time period.</p>

<p>I called FAFSA and described the issue to them. They told me that since this was a rollover, the school fin. aid office never should have entered the figure into FAFSA box 93f, but left it at 0, as the instructions state that rollovers are exempt. They told me to have the fin aid office correct this. Then I’m to call the Cal Grant office right after and tell them of the situation.</p>

<p>I’m now waiting to hear back from our CPA, as I’d like to know where on the tax forms it states that this was a rollover, because I’m not seeing it anywhere.</p>

<p>The fin aid office opens in about 8 min.'s, so I may call them first if I haven’t heard back.</p>

<p>I wish the fin aid office had called and spoken to me first before doing this.</p>

<p>Spoke with fin aid counselor. Since this was a IRA rollover, they do know (now) that it was exempt. The problem was that that no where in their paperwork/copies of our 1040 did it state that this was a rollover. She asked me to get a signed letter from our CPA stating that the IRA was a rollover. It’s scary how this could happen. Thanks all of you for discussing this with me. </p>

<p>Now I play the waiting game and follow up. The FAFSA can’t be updated for a few days since it’s still processing the change made on Friday. I’ll be calling the Cal Grant people when they open office in a couple hours to give them the heads up, and see whether they might be able to notate this somewhere. I’m feeling more calmed about this, though not completely until the update has been made and Cal Grant re-secured.</p>

<p>

It should absolutely have been reported on the tax return. There would have been a 1099-R issued and if you don’t include it on the return, you will hear from the IRS. If it was a direct rollover, the code would be “G” and the taxable amount will be zezro. The word “rollover” should also appear to the left of line 16. If it wasn’t a direct rollover, but rolled within the 60 days, the code would be different, but you would report it the same.</p>

<p>The code was G on the 1099-R, though since it wasn’t notated anywhere on the 1040 as being a rollover the school didn’t know.</p>

<p>Just got the problem resolved. Phew. I called Cal Grant as well, and they’re notating the file. The gentleman told me not to worry, that as long as the school agrees with this, we’re okay - the money will be re-instated. The school has the letter now and is agreeing that the rollover doesn’t count against us. </p>

<p>What-a-scare. So thankful it’s resolved.</p>