<p>Sent in CSS Profile to schools very early due to EA deadlines. Today is the day to file FAFSA. Haven't done taxes yet as we don't even have a W-2 at this date. However we do have a better idea today of our agi than we did at the time of filing Profile. Both will need to be corrected later after taxes are filed.
Should I sweat bullets over the FAFSA or just fill in the same #'s as the Profile and not worry about it since I'll be doing a correction?
So confused! Thanks</p>
<p>I had to do the Profile early too (Nov) and the FAFSA numbers I gave were slightly different as I had more info by Jan. I kinda think it doesn't matter either way, as long as you say that it's preliminary and that you haven't yet filed your taxes, they know things are in flux. As long as your final submissions match up it should be OK. That's the way I'm approaching it anyway, though I am a newbie at all this :) </p>
<p>Good luck to us all!!!</p>
<p>bump - any more experienced voices want to weigh in to help a nervous mom?</p>
<p>They don't have to match -- you should use the most accurate figures as of the date you file. Obviously estimates change over time. The college will ultimately rely either on the final FASFA you submit or your tax return for figures, and plug those into whatever formula they are using for financial aid. So if file your taxes in April and they end up having even different figures, but you don't get around to amending the FAFSA to match, the college would end up doing that for you.</p>
<p>You wouldn't get in any sort of trouble unless figures were so far off that it looked like you were trying to hide some assets -- for example, if you said you had $50,000 in the savings on the Profile, but on the FAFSA only report $10K... then the college would wonder where the other $40K went. But if is just a matter of a few thousand dollars, then the college would probably just assume you'd spend the money on reasonable things, like your property tax bill in December. </p>
<p>You should know that any award that the college gives you based on earlier figures isn't binding -- if an EA school gives you an award based on the Profile saying your income is $65K, and it turns out that your income for the year was really $75K, you could expect to lose about $5K from the financial aid package (parental income over a certain amount is assessed at almost a 50% rate).</p>
<p>Calmom - Thanks for the very helpful response! No, assets are actually zero, but our income is a little difficult to estimate because of job changes, hour / shift changes, etc. and I think is actually a few thousand more than I put on the profile, so the FAFSA filed today is a bit more accurate. Still don't have W-2, etc. and a couple of schools want a copy of my tax return by 2/1 (!)
If I understand correctly, after the taxes are done, I not only send the schools a copy, but I go in and amend (or correct) both the FAFSA and Profile. Is that right?
Bottom line is - like everyone else - it's time to do some serious belt-tightening - our 11 year old car is going to have to keep on running :)
I'm just thankful we can help our S a bit.</p>