Hoping I got this correct. We filed our taxes 10 days ago, but still cannot link to the IRS data retrieval tool…so we filled in the blanks ourselves.
Hoping we put the SS income and my pension In the right spots…
Where the heck are they supposed to go? What lines?
Assuming the SS income and pension are taxable, I don’t think that they get included as separate items. They are included in your AGI, which is reported on FAFSA line 85.
If all or parts of the SS income and pension are nontaxable, they may be included on FAFSA line 94 f and i.
Ok. Well…they were included in our AGI, but they were not included when we were asked to list out wages, etc.
There is a section that asks for parent wages. Parent 2 was easy…a line on the w2.
Parent 1 has SS, and pension income, and a small amount of untaxed pension.
Stupidly, we added them to untaxed income…DUH…that was wrong.
BUT…we will update when the IRS Data Retrieval Tool is available…hopefully this weekend…or sooner. And it will all repopulate correctly.
So glad the IRS tool will be able to fix this all up!!
It will fix it…right?
The data retrieval tool can’t fix the untaxed income line, because the IRS doesn’t know about all the possible sources of untaxed income. You’ll have to fix that one.
It should, I guess. You don’t have a balance due that you want to hold off paying until closer to the April 15 deadline, do you? Because it that’s the case, the DRT won’t work. As I discovered.
ETA: I agree with what arabrab says… that makes sense.
I know my untaxed income. It’s my SS plus a small amount of my pension…right? I can correct that myself. Is SS considered untaxed income? I think so. And I had $500 of pension which was also untaxed. And a required distribution from an IRA.
The rest of my pension was taxed.
No…MiddKid…we are getting a refund.
Sorry, I’m not up to speed on taxability of SS benefits… still a few more years to go. Does the SSA provide a 1099-R, or some other type of reporting document, that shows distributions for the year and whether or not they are subject to federal income tax?
MiddKidd, the taxability of SS retirement benefits depends on the amount of your other income. There’s a worksheet in the 1040 instructions to determine how much is taxable. There is a SSA-1099 issued every year listing the benefits you received but it’s not possible for the taxable part to be listed.
Thumper, line 20b of the 1040 is the taxable amount of your social security. It is included in AGI. The difference between 20a and 20b is not untaxed income for fafsa.
The instructions for question 94i specifically say not to include untaxed social security benefits:
https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1415/help/pTotalotherUntaxedIncome.htm
Line 16b of the 1040 is the taxable amount of pensions and included in AGI. If there is a difference between lines 16a and 16b then that amount would be entered for fafsa question 94f, Parent’s untaxed portions of pensions.
Regarding questions 88 and 89, parent income from work. In your case, parent 1 has no income from work. The purpose of those questions is to give you credit because social security and medicare taxes are paid on W-2 wages. Parent 1 didn’t pay any social security or medicare tax.
As for the IRA distribution, was that from a traditional IRA? Must be if it was required distribution. Line 15a and 15b work the same way as 16a and 16b. For the IRA any difference, 15a minus 15b goes for fafsa question 94e, parent’s untaxed portion of IRA distributions.
https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1415/help/pTotalUntaxedIRA.htm
The only way you can have an untaxed portion of a traditional IRA distribution is if you didn’t or couldn’t take the full deduction when you made one or more contributions. Then you should have filed a form 8606 the year(s) you made non-deductible contributions and have to file an 8606 any year you take a partially untaxable distribution.
Thanks everyone. I will do the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to update.
Re: the IRA distribution…it was an I herited IRA from my mom. She died, and had been taking the required distribution. So I need to take it as well.
I think I understand now.
Fortunately these things can be updated once processed!