If the parents total income is under 50,000 do the assets get taken into account, or automatically disregarded. I estimated checking account amount on fafsa. I got a verification letter saying to bring in physical income tax even though DRT was used to transfer data. It said fafsa indicated data was changed prior to submission. Not a clue what that means since nothing was changed. Really confused as to what they need to check on my tax return.
There is a formula used to determine how much in assets is protected. It is based on the age of the oldest parent, but it isn’t as much as $50k You still have to put in the correct amount and let the formula do its magic.
If you have been selected for verification just provide what the school is asking you to provide. If the information is accurate, then you don’t need to worry. They just want to check to be sure that your tax return aligns with all of the information on your financial aid application form.
So…just take them what they have asked for.
What does this have to do with zeroing out assets?
With regard to whether assets are counted…income needs to be less than $50,000 and you need to meet additional criteria as well. @mommdc I believe at one point you knew the new criteria for simplified needs test.
@twoinanddone I believe this poster might mean qualifying for simplified needs test whereby assets are not taken into consideration…not the parent asset protection allowance.
I am not sure how the DRT information can be changed after it’s imported into the FAFSA, but there must be some items that can be changed. I say this because the “information changed “ flag is active for current FAFSAs. Something got changed on yours, but you don’t need to worry about it … just turn in what was requested. However, I am surprised they are requesting a paper copy - I would request the IRS tax transcript in the case of a change after DRT. I am guessing whatever can be manually changed must be minor, and they are requesting the paper copy because they have to collect tax information by regulation in this case.
I will provide a paper copy as they are requesting. Just very confused how data can be changed prior to submission. I transferred via IRS DRT and filled in the rest of the information FAFSA requested and hit submit. How can I change something somewhere on FAFSA prior to it has being sent/submitted to school. What do they exactly mean by that, very confusing.
AGI less than 50K (actually I thnk it’s $49,999) and at least one other qualifier.
- Dislocated worker.
- Qualifies for any other government help (WIC, free/reduced lunch, SNAP, etc)
- Does not need to file a Schedule 1. form (with a few exceptions like to claim Alaska fund or a deductible IRA)
Yes on my D’s FAFSA it asked if she filed a schedule K or schedule 1, after DRT information was imported.
None of those forms were used. My question is, how can fafsa be changed after DRT was used. It says “transferred from the IRS”. Never mind I can’t (and don’t need) change any information that was transferred from the IRS, its not even visible for other reasons. This is why I was curious if anyone has any idea what "changed prior to submission means.
To be honest, I don’t, either, and I have worked in financial aid for years. I used to see changes made, but now that the info transferred is blanked out, I don’t know how anything can be changed. I just re-read the Electronic Announcement regarding the DRT no longer importing numbers … the fields are blank & cannot be updated. It goes on to give a flag code for when a field imported through DRT is updated on a later transaction. That would mean the student or parent went in later & updated a field that had transferred as blank (on the student/parent end). So it sounds like it “could “ happen that a change somehow can inadvertently be made when it should not be. No use spending time worrying about it, though.
Did your parents amend their 2018 tax return? Or did you?
There have been absolutely no amendments whatsoever. This is why I am so confused where the “change in data” is coming from.
I wouldn’t spend one more minute worrying why the college (s) want additional information. I would spend time getting that information to the colleges.
Sounds good, thanks…
Don’t mean to bring this up again… thinking it might be the IRA rollover, but that was all done prior to completing tax returns and using IRS DRT. There were no amended returns… oh well
I used DRT for FAFSa, for unsubsidized loan purposes only, and still have been selected for verification and been requested to provide a paper copy of our returns. No amended returns involved either. No IRA rollovers Just provided info as requested and that was that. No further questions.
Just give the colleges what they request.
Turns out the IRA rollover wasn’t transferred correctly by DRT. We answered all of the following manual rollover questions correctly. We put the corresponding amount. They now need proof that it was a rollover. There is a 5498 that proves the rollover. Something is not right with the IRS tool where rollovers are concerned.
There is a teeny little box you need to check on the FAFSA and if that isn’t done the rollover will be counted as income.
Lots of people miss that. And I totally agree…this should be fixed!!