I’m stumped by one small question on the CSS Profile. My daughter has a small amount of money in a Roth IRA and no other retirement assets. The CSS Profile asks if the student has retirement assets. I check the box and then it asks me to “Enter the total value of tax-deferred non-education retirement accounts as of today.” However, a Roth IRA is not tax-deferred. There is nowhere else to enter the Roth IRA. I spent 45 minutes on hold trying to get help from the College Board, but the CB employee had no idea how to answer my question.
I would include the value of the Roth account in “Retirement Assets,” even though a Roth account is not technically a tax deferred retirement account. It most definitely is a retirement asset.
Edited to add: I found this in the 2017-2018 version of the Profile “FAQs and Glossary”:
*Should I report the value of my Roth IRA?
Yes, the total value of all retirement (IRA, Keogh, 401k, 403b, etc.) accounts as of December 31 should be reported for the student in SA-105 and for the parent in PD-175 or PD-270.*
For that year’s Profile, SA-105 read as follows: “Enter the total value of your non-educational IRA, Keogh, 401k, 403b etc. accounts as of today.”
I don’t know why the FAQ answer says that the account values should be reported as of December 31.
The College Board needs to go through their application and make some of the wording clearer. There were a couple of other questions that had me confused. The College Board representative was so confused. I don’t even think she knew the difference between a Roth and Traditional IRA. Oy. You would think they would train their employees to know some basics so they could help parents with the questions. She couldn’t answer any of my questions.
Anyways, thanks for your response. I ended up entering my daughter’s Roth IRA.
I was confused by the same thing. I took the instructions at their word and put $0, since it specifically said “tax-deferred.” That said, I also checked the box that said he did have retirement assets. So, I figure I answered in the most honest way and a school could always ask for the Roth amount based on that info.