Fafsa Student Aid Form Available, Along With I.R.S. Data Tool

Fafsa Student Aid Form Available, Along With I.R.S. Data Tool
The Education Department, however, said in guidance to financial aid professionals, “Because the data came directly from the tax return filed by the applicant or parent and because income and tax items cannot be updated, we do not expect
that there will be a need to make many corrections to these items.”
If any changes are needed — if, for instance, a family’s income has changed drastically since the tax return
was filed — students must contact the financial aid administrator at the college to which they are applying.
According to the Education Department, instead of the transferred numbers, “applicants
and parents will see the words ‘Transferred from the IRS’ in the data entry fields throughout the online Fafsa form.”
The upside is the data should be more secure; previously, officials worried
that criminals could skim income data from the online forms and use it to file fraudulent tax returns to collect illegal refunds.
Many students and parents fill out and file the Fafsa online because
that allows them to automatically transfer income information into the form using the Internal Revenue Service’s Data Retrieval Tool.
Specifically, applicants transferring financial information using the retrieval tool cannot see the actual tax return data in their online Fafsa.
“They will always do whatever they can,” he said, “to help students apply for financial aid.”
Students and their families should also be aware that after using the retrieval tool, they may receive a letter in the mail from the I. R.S.