<p>I'm kind of new to this and have a relatively simple question:</p>
<p>Do home loans count at all/like are they factored into Financial Aid?</p>
<p>FAFSA asks for income and assets. Some assets are protected - the primary home and retirement accounts do not have to be reported on FAFSA. Debt is not taken into account on FAFSA except when it is a debt directly against an asset then it reduces the value of the asset. For instance if you own a second home (remember the primary home is not reported as an asset) you report the net value - ie value of the home less the mortgage against it.</p>
<p>Other debt - for instance credit card debt, car payments, mortgage payments - are not considered by FAFSA.</p>
<p>How is a pension considered?</p>
<p>Do you mean pension that is being received as income? </p>
<p>Pension income that is taxable is income. Up until this year untaxed SSI income had to be shown on one of the schedules as untaxed income. For 2009-2010 the rules appear to have changed and the FAFSA rules on the new FAFSA says not to report untaxed SS income. I think, but would not swear to, this includes SS pension income.</p>
<p>Money being put into a pension is included in income for that year if it is you putting it into an IRA deducted on your tax return. Money put in by an employer does not count for FAFSA (unless there is some other different reporting to you for taxes)</p>
<p>Roth IRA contributions are not subtracted from AGI so they do not get added back.</p>
<p>You also have to claim money that YOU put into a retirement fund pretax/deducted from your pay. This is included on one of the schedules. You'll find the amount to claim on your W2 - the FAFSA instructions tell you where to look & where to list it.</p>
<p>Is SS pension income untaxed? If so, it won't be put on the FAFSA next year - no untaxed SSI on FAFSA anymore after this year. If SS pension income is taxed, though, it would be claimed as income.</p>
<p>It is our sole income as my husband is retired and I am a "stay at home mom", and this is our first year to do a tax return with pension income, hence the question. I will not know until we go for our tax appt. how it is reported (on which line on the tax forms). Is it any different for the collegeboard PROFILE that has to be done by Nov 15th?</p>
<p>My husband is retired. We have some other income from a 401k. Federal pension income does not have to be reported at all on the tax return unless there is other income over a certain amount. (being a tax rule it is a somewhat convoluted formula to figure out whether if and how much has to be reported as income). The last 2 years we did not have to report any of the federal pension on our tax return.</p>
<p>I don't know about profile.</p>
<p>Profile is quite a bit different than FAFSA. I haven't looked at it for next year, but I doubt the Profile will exclude ss income. It will ask for primary residence value (worth on today's market-debt-realtor fees). Everything else under the sun will be requested, as well. Profile-filling-out-day is not my favorite! FAFSA is much easier. However, the Profile does provide decent explanations - you just have to make sure you read everything as you go along filling it out.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>
<p>For the home value, what do they mean exactly? *Like do they mean the land value + the building value (that's listed in the city/county parcel records?) or is it the price your house would be put on the market for? * Because often, the value of the home (the value that gets taxed) is 100 or 200K less than what many people sell their homes for.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>They generally mean the actual sale value, and do pay attention to whether they ask for your mortgage amount separately or if you should put in the net value- home selling for $500k w/$400k mortgage, has a net equity value of $100k</p>