I was looking at some of the colleges my kid wants to apply to and gathering the financial aid requirements. I see that some schools require the FAFSA, the Profile, the IDOC and the tax transcript. This seems like overkill to me and I was just wondering what important tax data would be on a tax transcript that isn’t already known by using the DRT and submitting the tax returns through Profile and IDOC.
I don’t think there is any and now I am wondering about this particular school because I think they are stupid and I don’t think DD should apply there if they are incompetent.
But, she wants to apply and since we have to get the tax transcript anyway, it says we can download it and then upload it directly to the college but each time I try to go to the irs website to download the transcript, it crashes or simply doesn’t come up. What’s the trick? Has anyone had recent success doing this? I am not happy having to get the transcript because it doesn’t work for me now but has in the past. I know HOW it works, it just doesn’t.
By the way, I did the FAFSA and it worked so great, no issues, transferred our data right away. I started the Profile but it’s SO long and then without warning, it shut down but at least I had saved all along the way. It did not give me any warning saying no activity or sign out or click to continue to keep it active, nothing. The profile is different using the prior, prior because you have to now guess what you are going to make this year AND next year in addition to knowing of course, what you made in 2015. I didn’t expect that part so heads up for any others starting this process.
@BelknapPoint, I had the profile from my other kid that was completed this past spring in front of me so it would be easier to do and I didn’t see any question about income for 2017 so perhaps I missed it before, oops.
So, do you know about the tax transcript question? Is there additional information on the transcript that isn’t found on the actual tax return that is required through IDOC? Why would a school require both? Do you have any guesses as to why I can’t get it to work? Or what to do about it?
Also, isn’t there some rule that you can only send documents to IDOC once so if DD is applying to any early school, I better have ALL the documents for all of her schools ready early?
The FAFSA was so easy, I became overconfident and now it’s all getting “tricky.”
Thank you for your reply and any more help you can give me, really appreciate it.
I thought that the DRT verifies the tax return info for FAFSA. But for CSS profile they want the tax return sent through IDOC and some schools want the tax transcript as well.
I believe you need to order the transcript to be mailed to you. I don’t think you can download it any more.
Thank you @mommdc I was finally able to open the IRS tax transcript page. It does give me the option of downloading it in pdf. form. It must have just been down each time I tried to get to it before doing maintenance or overloaded.
I figured it out. This one school is requesting the transcript instead of the copies of the tax returns, hmm, maybe the smartest school on the list after all!
Do you know if the rule still holds that you can not send additional material to IDOC? It had to all come in one packet a few years ago. That would mean we’d have to have everything ready for all her schools, not just the early ones?
Never mind, I just realized that IDOC is all online now. There is no more mailing the packets. I totally forgot that and just remembered what a nightmare it was when my other child applied.
Whatever forms the early school wants will just appear after we file the Profile that will direct us to the idoc. Other than the tax transcript for just one school, all the rest of the schools have the same forms so it’s not an issue.
I was told by one school fin aid officer that they ask for the transcript so they can verify that the IRS agrees with what your submitted tax forms report. Suppose someone “forgot” to report one of their jobs, and instead of reporting their $100K in wages, they filled out and filed their income taxes using their primary job, and reported only $65K. This would get bounced at the IRS because it wouldn’t match up with the W-2’s for that SSN. But if the person gave a copy of their initially submitted tax form to the school, it might look like they qualify for much better financial aid. This hypothetical person would have their tax recalculated by the IRS and may have to file an amended return. Without a transcript, the school might have no way of knowing about that second job.
The tax transcript lists all of the things that are on the tax return. Schools that verify all students (typically, the schools with a lot of money to give away) want to see what is “really” on the tax return … the DRT does not bring over all of the items on a return, so the transcript lets the schools verify ALL tax info.