What constitutes income for FA/EFC?

Paying for College
1

<p>While computing FA,EFC you have to furnish your income. Does this income mean Adjusted gross income ( AGI) or it's income before adjustments?</p>

2

<p>Generally it’s AGI. The question should tell you which line from which tax form to enter. Are you asking about fafsa, profile or a school’s own form? Other questions will add some things back in such as pre-tax contributions to a 401k. For the self-employed and those who own a business or rental properties, some deductions allowed by the IRS won’t be allowed by profile schools or schools with their own forms and will be added back in.</p>

3

<p>I’m trying to remember, doesn’t the Profile want untaxed SS that goes to family members other than the student?</p>

<p>The thing to remember is that while AGI is used for income, some things that are not included for tax purposes are added back in for FA calculations.</p>

4

<p>Profile does want it all. Untaxed SS, Earned Income Credit, Additional Child Tax Credit…</p>

5

<p>Profile asks for it all. What is actually used by each school varies.</p>

6

<p>I think colleges do want pretty much “all of it” if they are Profile schools. Some even have extra forms beyond the Profile (Swarthmore is an example of a school with additional questions beyond the Profile in a separate form). But for a FAFSA-only school, they do not ask for as much info as a Profile school does.</p>

<p>I will say as a long time poster – the Financial Aid forum deals with some of the most complicated questions in college admissions. Can’t tell you how many times I have posted something I thought was true out here, then found out from those with deep FA experience that there is yet another wrinkle or something I didn’t know about. I do a lot of “lurking” and not too much posting on this forum partly because of that. People are on the FA forum for serious, factual advice.</p>

<p>OP, what type of colleges do you intend to apply to? That will make a difference in the answer to your question.</p>

7

<p>

See <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1323421-css-expected-family-contribution.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1323421-css-expected-family-contribution.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Op, I’m assuming that you’re asking about FAFSA EFC. FAFSA will clearly ask what kind of income it’s looking for. For example,

or

Most people will suggest:

</p>

8

<p>

You should always “trust, but verify” before using the “serious, factual advice” in this forum.</p>

9

<p>Sorry, but if Kelsmom says it… I believe it. Period. :)</p>

10

<p>One thing that was surprising for me, after the heavy use of the AGI, was that Duke, for example, calculates family income for loan threshholds based on AGI+retirement funds (which pushed us into a different loan limit). Of course, this applies to a very small subset of situations, but there it is.</p>