<p>Hi everyone,
I'm getting ready to fill out FAFSA for the first time. One of the schools where D1 is applying needs tax returns filed electronically by Feb 15. We usually do ours with Turbotax so no issues there. But D worked last year so will file a return. Turbotax allows a free Federal return for someone like her but they charge $28 to efile a state return. Are state returns required for all this financial aid stuff? I'd rather send in a paper return if the school (Rice) does not require it. What is typical?</p>
<p>Call the Rice FA Office. My experience has been with (4) kids’ colleges is that they do not want the state returns. But every school is different! If you get a refund on your state income tax return, it will show up as income on the next year’s federal tax return, so try to avoid large state income tax refunds! :)</p>
<p>State returns are not required for FAFSA - FAFSA just estimates a figure for state taxes based on tables in the EFC formula.</p>
<p>Check with the school to find out for sure. In our experience…the ONLY thing the schools never asked for was state tax returns.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, you guys are the BEST!</p>
<p>If the state tax return is based on the federal one, it won’t be hard for your child to figure out how to complete it once the federal form is done. Just be sure to print out a copy of the federal form from the TurboTax results for your child’s file before hitting “send” to submit it electronically. That way most of the figures should be in hand for completing a paper version of the state taxes.</p>
<p>Re: filing state tax returns…even though Turbo Tax charges, some states have “free file” for wage earners under a certain amount…check to see if your state has that.</p>
<p>As a result of a cooperative effort between the IRS and state tax administration agencies, Federal/State e-file is available to taxpayers to file their Federal and state returns electronically at the same time. It is available to you through tax professionals or in most states by filing from your home computer.</p>
<p>[Federal/State</a> e-file for Taxpayers](<a href=“http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=97915,00.html]Federal/State”>http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=97915,00.html)</p>