Returning to the USA for final year of HS with very good ACT and SAT scores; trying to get a handle

Surprised no one has mentioned THE program for art history - Williams. (look up Williams mafia).
For the fields she’s interested in she needs a top notch program or university. So, UDel for conservation would work but a random university wouldn’t. (it’s the opposite of abet accredited programs which levels he playing field and closer to law schools where it’s top-notch or bust).
Run the NPC. See if any NPC seems affordable and see if she can apply ED there. He must be ready to walk away.
Has she secured her recommendations from her current school?
A good thing is that a UK IB kid (with, I presume, 7-8+ good IGCSE or GCSE scores) will be able to handle 5 APs with no trouble. (If she misses some uk content, there’s AICE and Cambridge preU). A bad thing is they she’s lost her leadership positions and all her current ECs unless they can be replicated in Oregon.
She’ll be applying to UOregon with her IB predicted, her GCSE/IGCSE’s. She definitely should apply to the honors college. Lewis and Clark EA will be a safety so hopefully he’s started to express interest.
She should also check out u Puget sound.

Thank you. So far the NPCs are running high, but I don’t have this year’s federal tax return, which theoretically will be have a lower AGI than the year before. Unfortunately, within our retirement portfolio, there were some funds sold (unbeknownst to us and just as part of a particular company consolidating) which has sort of artificially inflated our AGI for the upcoming year(we didn’t see any direct benefit from the sale, it just went from one retirement account to another retirement savings account). As our daughter only studied in the UK one year, she doesn’t have GCSE or IGCSE scores. She was already taking AP courses before coming over to the UK. Only been here a year. She can get letters of recommendations from her teachers here, as they all love her.

Were your retirement accounts rollovers from one tax deferred fund to another tax deferred fund? If so, you should have paperwork to support that rollover. When you do your FAFSA, there is a specific question about this…and a little box you MUST check…if it’s a rollover, that money is not considered income for financial aid purposes. BUT you need to check your paperwork.

Are you saying you have no idea what your income was last year? It’s mid June. Surely you have at least a decent estimate of what you earned in 2017.

           Also how will she do capstone in 1 yr, and why would she do it? 

This is the issue with respect to capital gains as reported by our financial planner: “You are correct we did not sell anything in your joint account however at the end of September 2017 Monogram merged with a private company and thus share- holders were paid out no questions asked. Thus you had a capital gain of 8275.84 after accounting for a small $16.04 loss. The sales proceeds from that merger were put into your money market account in the joint account and that is where we pulled the money from to make your 2017 IRA contributions. As for capital gains reporting,… you must report the gain whether or not the money was reinvested.”

Yes, I have a general sense of our earnings and am using them for the NPC. There are a few bits of data lacking, so I’m not sure of the exact number. For a family of 5 (this is the last year we are claiming our oldest daughter and we take care of our niece) we are in the low-middle income bracket (low $60K AGI). Next year we will be a family of four, but I anticipate our AGI to be significantly lower than 2017.

Ok then it’s a different situation. It’s as if she spent a year abroad, she is not an expat kid (for admissions purposes). In that case, go easy on the AP classes (3-4 should be good) and make sure she can resume her activities at that school. There’ll be some adjustments.
And since you’ve not lived in the UK for 3years you wouldn’t be eligible for the “discount” given to all UK/really residents anyway. Be careful with re entry cultural shock.

Our daughter already was in the AP program on track for the AP Capstone diploma. She took three AP subjects as a Sophomore, but 4 AP tests. Therefore, I think she she needs 2-3 AP courses, plus a writing requirement to fulfill the obligations. She wants to do it because she wants to do it.

Do you own a farm or am I misunderstading?

Doesnyour niece live with you?

yes, she’s lived with us for 3 years. She’s 19 years old. She graduated HS last year. She is considering going to a local community college in the fall.

we have farm property and file a Schedule F. It’s more of a hobby farm, but in that we lease out our pasture to someone who has horses and then take some expenses, we declare any income. It’s a very small amount.

Right, she’s not an expat-kid. She’s going back to her old high school. They’ll take all of her coursework here. She’ll most likely have a heavy load next year, but that’s her choice; AP Calc, high level Chemistry (AP Chem isn’t offered), probably AP History and there’s a required AP writing course. Yeah, I’m expecting there to be re-entry culture shock, but on the other hand she’ll be back with friends she’s known since she’s been little.

Your niece…legal guardianship? Or not? If not, she might not be considered as a family member for financial aid purposes. Another recent poster was supporting her nephews. The colleges didn’t care…at all.

And if your niece was in legal guardianship SHE will be independent for financial aid purposes…it’s highly likely she won’t be counted in your count for financial aid purposes…at all.

You know…with a $60,000 a year income, the very generous schools will be…very generous IF she gets accepted. Well…except for one thing. Do NOT underestimate what the farm ownership will do to your financial aid.

It’s NOT just the small income that will be considered. It’s the value of the farm.

Old timers here have read numerous posters stories about how farm ownership really lowered their need based aid…because the value of that farm is considered an additional asset. One notable poster got not a dime of need based aid from any of the Ivies to which his kid got accepted. She took a pretty much full ride to Rhodes College…she did go to Yale Medical School eventually.

Is your farm part of where your primary residence will be? Just remember…the portion you rent out…will STILL be considered an asset…and the rental income from 2017 will be income.

If it’s a separate property, the equity value of the WHOLE farm plus the rental income will be considered.

We do claim our niece on our taxes as a dependent. The farm thing is a bit strange in that it is very common for people who live where we live to have farm property, but not necessarily run it as a farm business. It’s considered more of a hobby farm. We don’t cultivate or grow anything do anything on a commercial level. Lots of folks around us do the same thing. They might have some cows, horses, sheep, etc. but don’t run it as a business. We have pasture that’s nothing more than old grass. We lease it out to someone who needs pasture for their horses. So, it’s a bit of a conundrum as to how best to categorize it.

Where we live, it’s not necessarily considered to be an additional asset and in fact in our case it might be a bit of a liability. There is a real market value assessed on the entirety of the property, which is what we use when asked the overall value of the property/home. But we have two legal dwellings, which in fact does not add any value to the property what-so-ever and makes it more difficult to sell.

Yes, our primary residence is on our farm property, but again farm property in Central Oregon is very common and is not necessarily an asset. Yes, we are aware of rental property/rental income and that is all included when we file our taxes.

I think what posters are saying is that, despite farm land not being an asset in Central Oregon, it is for CSS profile purposes ie, what Brown and Williams will use to determine need.

It doesn’t matter what your farm is viewed as by your neighbors or others who live near you…or you. It’s not an unusual situation at all. You own a secondary piece of real estate that IS an asset for financial aid purposes.

For financial aid purposes, the VALUE of that farm/farmland is an additional asset. Period. Doesn’t matter if it’s a hobby, or not used at all.

When you submit your financial aid forms, you will be required to submit a tax transcript…it doesn’t sound like you will be able to use the IRS data retrieval tool. Your farm schedule WILL be included.

In thinking about it, in that we technically “rent” out the pasture for grazing, it might be that we should have been filing a Schedule E (rental business) versus the Schedule F (farm business). The tax person we are seeing in August should be able to help us sort this out and that will come in handy for whether we are considered a farm for tax/FAFSA purposes.

And this…this could also be an issue because the money wasn’t rolled directly from one tax deferred retirement account to another. It sounds like the money was actually placed in YOUR joint money market account…and the moved to an IRA.

You do also understand that contributions made TO a tax deferred retirement account are added back in as income for EVERYONE (unless it’s a rollover from one tax deferred account to another).

Unless I’m reading this incorrectly, you had $8200 or so in income…a capital gain…that was placed into your IRA. If that is correct, it WILL be counted as income for 2017.

@BelknapPoint am I correct??

it isn’t secondary real estate. It’s where we live; all inclusive. We have a home on the property (the one we are going back to). That home is situated on just under 20 acres of land. That is our primary residence. Now on the property is a second home. There have been two legal dwellings on this property since the mid 1970s. One tax lot. The property is not dividable and the second home provides no additional value in accordance with County valuation. I’ll look into getting a tax expert opinion on this as it’s a bit over my head.

Honestly…the schedule you file can be worked out with your tax person…

But that doesn’t change the fact that the VALUE of this farmland must be declared if it’s a farm separate from your land of your primary residence.

Eg. We have friends with 60 acres of land surrounding their home. It used to be farmland, it it’s now just a BIG front and back yard. They also rent the haying rights to a local farmer. But since this 60 acres is deeded as part of their home, it’s not a separate farm.

We have other friends who own about 100 acres of what used to be a farm. It’s not part of their deeded primary residence. Their kid had to walk away from a few colleges because of the value of that farmland.

There’s not enough information provided to figure out what’s really going on.

Edited to add: it sounds like the capital gain that was realized took place in a non-qualified account. If that’s the case, it’s simply treated like ordinary income.