<p>It's my first year in the federal work-study program for college and have a few quick questions.
1) Do I still file a tax return like everyone else does?
2) Do I put my earnings from work-study into the form part that asks for student earnings when applying for financial aid? </p>
<p>Any other helpful information would be great, thanks and I appreciate it!</p>
<p>You are only required to file taxes if you made over 5800 (along with various other rules/requirements but that’s basically what ti boils down to). Otherwise it’s optional.</p>
<p>Yes, all your income is “student earnings,” doesn’t matter if it came from work-study.</p>
<p>1)Yes, you need to file federal and state tax returns if any taxes were deducted from your paycheck. If state taxes were deducted, you need to file state tax returns in your home state and the state where you worked. If no taxes were deducted and you earned below $5,800 in 2012, you will likely not need to file a tax return.
2) You list your work study earnings as earned income on the FAFSA and they are deducted in a separate question so they don’t affect your EFC.</p>
<p>Your Federal and state returns can likely be filed online for free and don’t take very long to complete. One company even has a smartphone app and claims that you can get your federal 1040EZ form completed and efiled for free in about 15 minutes.</p>
<p>Pancaked and Seatide, are you sure? I had thought that work-study had the same status as the rest of the financial package, and that as long as it was going to the tuition portion of the college bill it wasn’t taxable? If the grants aren’t taxable, why would these earned partial grants be taxable?</p>
<p>And I don’t anyone can make 5800 in work-study money. I’ve always thought that component was pretty meaningless because it seems fairly easy to find jobs that pay more that aren’t work-study. I thought the tax aspect was the only advantage.</p>
<p>If you don’t make $5800 or more you aren’t required to file. Work study earnings will not effect your EFC score</p>
<p>why would these earned partial grants be taxable?</p>
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<p>Work study is not a grant - it is pay for a job that is awarded on the basis of need. But it is earned as work, and thus it is taxable. The advantage is that it is removed from the EFC formula.</p>
<p>As I mentioned previously, there are cases when one earns less than $5,800, but is still required to file a tax return. </p>
<p>It is possible to have both a Work Study and a non-Work Study job in the same tax year, so one could earn $5,800+ that way.</p>
<p>As kelsmom mentioned, Work Study is a job with earned income which is taxed accordingly, but said income is removed from EFC calculations.</p>