Do you have outstanding document requirements? You have probably been selected for VERIFICATION:
Some students, upon completing the FREE APPLICATION FOR FEDERAL STUDENT AID (FAFSA) are selected for a review process called verification. The purpose of the verification is for the school to verify that the information filed on the FAFSA exactly matches the income taxes filed in the prior year with the IRS and to verify the following: household size, number in college and untaxed income as well as child support paid.
If your FAFSA has been selected for verification, you will be notified of this on your Student Aid Report (SAR) that you receive from the Central Processor and you will be notified by your school of choice.
To make things easier:
You may now link your tax information from the IRS directly to the FAFSA thereby ensuring the figures are accurate and, if no changes are made to the imported information, the requirement to supply tax information to the University will be waived.
However, if you are unable to link your IRS data to the FAFSA (you filed taxes as “married filing separately”, “head of household” or some other reason) or you adjust the data that is imported, you will be required to obtain a “TAX TRANSCRIPT” directly from the IRS. We will no longer accept copies of your individual returns that you receive from your tax preparer or accounting software as we have in year’s past.
We recommend that you watch the YouTube tutorial on how to link your taxes prior to attempting this update on the FAFSA. This video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W47_YTRVYD4
Further, if you file the FAFSA prior to filing your taxes with the IRS (as the PHEAA State Grant deadline is May 1st), you may file stating that you “will file” your taxes and use estimated income figures. HOWEVER, it will be your responsibility to update the FAFSA once your taxes are filed. If you wish to link with the IRS, please wait until your refund has been received (or debt paid) to import your IRS data to the FAFSA. This will ensure the IRS has processed your return in order for it to be imported to the FAFSA.
Failure to comply with verification will result in no federal or state aid being funded to you.
REMINDERS:
If you pay child support to a child that is not in your household, you may not count the child in the number in the household AND claim the child support paid for that child. If you count the child, you may not count the child support paid. If you count the child support paid, you may not count the child. Please also be prepared to show proof of payments to the Financial Aid office for verification purposes.
Please supply any and all documents requested in a timely manner. If you wait until after bills are available OR until the first day of class, there will be late payment penalties.
If you mark on the FAFSA that you receive some type of welfare benefit, please be prepared to show proof of that claim to the Financial Aid office.
WHY CAN’T I LINK MY TAXES TO THE IRS?
- Parents with all zeroes for SSN
- Students using an 888 identifier in place of an SSN (i.e., students from the Pacific Islands)
- Any student or parent with a marital status date of January 1, 2012 or later
- Any student or parent who indicates they have not already filed a tax return or will not file a tax return in response to the “For 2012, have [you, your parent] completed [your, their] IRS income tax return or another tax return?” FAFSA question
- Students or parents who filed an amended federal tax return for 2012 (the IRS database used for this process contains only original IRS information, not information from amended returns)
- Students or parents with a marital status of Married whose 2012 federal tax filing status was “married filing separately” or “head of household”
- Students or parents who filed a foreign (or Puerto Rican) tax return
- Any student or parent who has not paid their taxes owed or received any refund due - you must pay your tax debt in order for your return to be 100% processed by the IRS.
How to order tax transcripts if unable to link with IRS:
Online – www.irs.gov
- left hand side “Order a Tax Return or Account Transcript”
- “Order a Transcript”
- Enter personal information – continue
- Select “Return Transcript” under Type of Transcript field
- Select the correct tax year (2012)
Telephone – 1-800-908-9946
- Follow prompts and input information as requested
- Select “Option 2” to request a Tax Return Transcript
- Enter the correct tax year (2012)
- Confirmation will be given once the process is complete
Mail/Paper Form – www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506tez.pdf
- Complete lines 1-4 using instruction on page 2 of the form
- Line 5 allows for direct mailing of transcript to third party (school)
- Select the appropriate year on line 6 (2012)
- Tax filer must sign and date the form (only one signature required for joint filers)
- Mail or fax the form using the information on page 2
SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES:
If you feel as though the information contained or captured on the FAFSA at the time of submitting does not accurately reflect your current ability to pay, please contact Rachel Richards in the Shippensburg University Financial Aid office at 717-477-1131 to discuss any potential changes to the FAFSA.
***IMPORTANT*** - Additional information or documentation may be requested at the discretion of the verification officer. All requests must be complied with in order to get aid.