I’m starting my CSS profile, and I have no idea what tax year info I should input. How does it make sense to input 2015 tax info if my family is filing in April 2016?
It’s October. Your family has nine months record of the 2015 tax year. Use the year to date your parents have so far to estimate well your totals for the full 2015 tax year.
Doesn’t it ask for both the last official filing year and estimates for the current year? That’s what I recall, but it’s been a few years since I had to navigate that thing.
Sorry, I am literally a layman in taxes info. What should I tell my parents? They don’t know what are the “records” exactly.
I assume your family filed a tax return by 4/15/2015 for the 2014 tax year. That is one set of records. You should (as thumper1 noted above) be able to estimate the same information for 2015 from pay stubs, etc. If that doesn;t male sense, I think you’re beyond the ability of anyone on this forum to help you remotely. High school guidance counselor, maybe?
Your parents should have records of their income in last nine months. For example, their pay stubs.
And it’s important to keep the paystubs to compare it to the W2 form they will receive sometime in January.
Your parent last pay stub should have the income from that pay period as well as year to date for income and taxes and FICA. You can use the numbers on that pay stub to extrapolate the amount for the remainder of the year.
Yeah, my parents do have pay stubs. I’m just new to this estimating thing. I’ll try to get some local help.
OP, are you international? That is probably why some of this isn’t making sense to you or your parents.
@intparent: good call.
@BeCambridge: if you need help, PM me. Lawyer. I’m happy to try to help. Or, I can put you in touch with friends (spent some years here in California when their D was in middle school) @ Fen Ditton/Ditton Corner.
I am not sure, just thought I remembered it from a previous thread. But I might be wrong.
If you look at the pay stub, look for gross wages, year to date, YTD. That is what they were paid so far this year. If they get paid monthly they will have 12 pay periods a year, if they get paid biweekly, they will have 26, weekly 52.
So for example if the YTD gross wages so far is 27,000 and they had 9 monthly checks so far, then divide total pay by 9, that’s $3,000. Then multiply by 12 and you get estimated yearly pay.
You could also look at last year’s tax return and use that amount to estimate for this year if their income hasn’t changed much.
Then when taxes are done you will have to update as soon as possible with real numbers.
No, I’m domestic. I just know nothing about taxes (not my specialty, adult stuff).
Yeah. That gross income thing makes MUCH more sense now. But do you know what other things I need to estimate?
https://student.collegeboard.org/css-financial-aid-profile
There is some info and interactive presentation about CSS profile at the above website.
You will also need to estimate taxes paid. That won’t be on those pay stubs. Ask your parents if you can see their 2014 tax return. If their income hasn’t changed, use an amount that is the same. If it has gone up, increase the tax amount.
You will be indicating that you have not filed your taxes on the Profile…so the school will know these are estimates. But make them good ones!!