Thank you for this! I work in Admissions at a state college but often find myself answering FAFSA questions and helping prospective students complete it. Love watching your videos each year to update myself to be the best prepared I can be for the students. Appreciate the work you do!
This is such a wonderful and detailed video. Thank you. I have a question regarding parent financials and will try and contact student aid tomorrow, but I wanted to know if under Parent Income From Work, if it includes unemployment compensation? It says for example: Parent 1 from working wages, salaries, tips, etc.) Is unemployment considered "etc." It was added in the 1040 as other income, but obviously not from work but being out of work. Thank you so much.
Yes it is included! Under the section for parent tax information it will ask about it, if you click on the gray question mark symbol next to the answer box, the FAFSA website will show you where to find it on a 1040 tax form!
Hello! I have a question, when you add the school that you are applying for in the FAFSA form, do you also create an account in the school your applying before or after FAFSA? Because I'm about to do FAFSA right now but not sure if I should make an account in the school I'm applying first or later also how does the money go to that account. Don't worry I'm going to rewatch your video and look online so you don't have to answer all of my questions, just the first one if you can! btw thank you so much for making this video because it's extremely helpful since I'm kind of doing it alone :)
Hi Cabbage, great question! To get your financial aid offer letter from the college that informs you of the aid you qualify for, you must be accepted to that college and must list them on the FAFSA. You'll probably need an account with the school to accept your offers.
I have some questions: 1) I applied to 13 schools, but here maximum you can put is 10; How can I put all 13? 2) On parent information, it asks me if my parents completed any kind of tax return in 2021. But we only came 5 months ago in America, in 2021 we weren't here. Do I choose "Not going to file"? 3) Do I have to skip the questions about my and my parents' income and taxes? because I'm not sure if it's asking about 2021, at that time we weren't here.
4) Before the section 7 begins, it says: You're not done yet! You still need to submit your FAFSA® form. After you print this page, select "Continue" to sign your FAFSA form. Do I have to print that page? (I'm not sure because the form isn't ended at that time) 5) It asks me about my driver's license, but I have a permit, do I just put my permit ID?
Thank you for the video! I have 3 questions. 1. if someone started a job in June of 2022, do they still put their income and assets even though the 22-23 FAFSA is based on the 2021 tax information 2. If someone’s parents have a bank account that is joint and they also have separate bank accounts as well, does the dependent report the assets of all 3 accounts or just the joint one? 3. If someone’s parents have a bank account that is joint and one parent also has a separate account for their business, does the dependent report the assets of the joint account and the business account combined?
Great Questions! To answer: 1. No you would not need to report it until next year, only your taxes from 2021 will be reported. 2. Yes, you will have to report all three of them under current assets 3. You do not need to report the business account unless there are 100 employees or more! If there are then you would add it. Hope this helps!
Hello. Thank you for a great video! A question about parents financials. A student's parents are noncitizen so zeroes were entered for both parents’ social security numbers, foreign country was selected for both, then not going to file taxes, and finally entered earnings information but till asked about IRS information and cannot proceed. Any idea what's going wrong?
I usually answer ‘No’ to the parent assests questions but I did not get an option of Yes or No this time. Instead I got “Does it exceed $0.00?” Did I not get the Yes or No option for assets because I used the tax data retrieval form for IRS instead of filling manually? So, I’m supposed to combine what my parents have in their checking account, their saving account, and all the cash is their wallet? Does the include how much money is in their debit card? Only my father works so do i only use his information?
Yes, you will need to list all the assets your parents have in the parent financials section and then later you will need to list all your assets in the student financials section. In the first box you will need to combine the following amounts as of today: checking account amount, savings account amount, and any cash. Then in the second box, you will need to list the net worth of your parent's investments including: 529 accounts, stocks/bonds outside of retirement, value of cryptocurrencies, real estate beyond your parent's primary residence, etc. In the third box, you will list the net worth of your parents' current businesses and/or investment farms such as: a business with 100 or more full-time employees and a non-family-operated farm What you should not list here is your parent's primary residence, any vehicles they drive, and any retirement accounts or retirement investments.
Hello! I want to ask about question 84 (parents’ income). My line 1 on the 1040 Form is empty, and I don’t have any other forms such as Schedule 1, Schedule K-2, or a W-2. Do I put my mother’s income as $0 (she’s single)? But the thing that confuses me is that she did work and her adjusted gross income is ~$10,000. And the video is very helpful! Thank you so much!
Thank you for your question! Many may not have a number in line 1, I would review to see if there is information on line 9. Line 9 is the total income on the 2021 1040 tax form, it won't have the exact answer but it could help you as you are trying to find how much money your parent made. If your mother is divorced or separate then most likely how much she made will be around line 9 and line 11. If you are having a hard time finding that amount, I would just ask your parent how much they made for the 2021 year. You can ballpark the number if you are having issues, just make sure you try to get as close as possible. If your parent is married or living together, then that total income and adjust gross income is split between both parents and you'll need to figure out how much one parent made compare to the other to get those numbers.
Great question, you use the Save Key you created when you started the application. If you forgot what it is then there is a button you can click that says "forgot my save key".
Great question, both are the same because both will require the same information. Both can also be resumed later on using the "Save Key" that you create when first starting the application.
i got a question if you are under a guardianship but are dependent on their taxes do i not check that question and list myself as a dependent or do i check it and consider myself an independent?
Great Question Karla! If someone other than your parent or stepparent has legal guardianship over you as determined by a court in your state. Even if they report you as a dependent on their taxes, you can still check the box on your FAFSA and you do not need to report their information!
@@mariaencalada291 Yes, it shouldn't cause a problem if one parent didn't work and didn't earn any money for that tax year. It's actually quite common for families (married filed jointly families) to have one parent that does not have any earnings for the year.
In the case of a parent that is widowed there is an option for it when responding to the question "As of today, what is the marital status of your parents?" If you pause this video at 14:35 you can also see it listed as the last option under the question.
Hello, I am planning to apply to get a job soon and this will be my first job ever. I already submitted the fafsa and i put $0.00 for my asset and income because I have never had a job or a bank account. If I get this job and get a check, do I makes changes to the fafsa form because I have money now and will open a bank account once I get the job or were all the questions on the 23-24 fafsa form applied to the year prior? Thank you.
Great question Kindree! Because you are just starting the job, you don't need to list what you earn from it on the 23-24 FAFSA because you report your income for 2021. Next year, when you file your taxes for 2022, you will report it on the 24-25 FAFSA!
Hello I have a question! For the student tax filing status. I didn’t work. It says for 2021 have I completed any IRS income tax return. Which I did not. What do I select? If I do select one of the options do I insert 0 for all?
Great question! If you didn't work you can select "Not going to file" and you can put a 0 for income. There are a few questions that ask about savings accounts and different forms of income, you will want to look over those and see if any of those apply to you, if not you can put a 0 for those as well!
Thank you so much! Also 1 last question. Kind of personal dilema here. The section where it asks how many dependents there is has me going back and forth. There are 5 in tota(family)l. The question asked are there any other dependents not including me of course. My brother stays with us but does not pay any rent. But He receives disability checks. I heard in a FAFSA help video where the dependent turns 24 is no longer dependent. My question is he a dependent? He basically maintains himself with his checks that he receives. This whole situation has me very confused and I don’t want to put the wrong number of dependents. If I remove him the household number becomes 4. Which it’s not correct because he still lives here. He is 23, but not going to college yet. @@utahcollegeaccess
@@elenalu5877 That part of the FAFSA has nothing to do with who they report on their taxes as a dependent. Anyone who is living with your parents, receives more than half their support financially from them, and will continue to do so for the next school year would be included as an other dependent! Hope this helps!
I have a question I immigrated to us last year and i have never been enrolled to any college or school in US can i still apply for Fafsa before getting enrolled?
Yes you can still apply for FAFSA, the section about state residency on the FAFSA asks about citizenship status, so you will just want to pick what applies to you!
@@CalifornianWanderLust It also depends on your legal status, I would review this webpage to make sure you have all the right documents in preparation to filing the FAFSA: studentaid.gov/understand-aid/eligibility/requirements/non-us-citizens In addition, in-state tuition is a possibility depending on the state. In Utah, if you are a permanent resident, a refugee, an asylum grantee, or have a green card then you need to have lived in Utah for at least 12 months. If you are undocumented or have DACA, TPS, or DED then I would look into HB 144 for Utah here: educate-utah.org/hb144-facts/
Thank you for your questions. I would review the questions on FSAs website to review whether or not you are considered independent or dependent. studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/dependency If you answer no to all those questions your are considered dependent and will need your parent's information on the FAFSA form.
I have some questions: 1) I applied to 13 schools, but here maximum you can put is 10; How can I put all 13? 2) On parent information, it asks me if my parents completed any kind of tax return in 2021. But we only came 5 months ago in America, in 2021 we weren't here. Do I choose "Not going to file"? 3) Do I have to skip the questions about my and my parents' income and taxes? because I'm not sure if it's asking about 2021, at that time we weren't here.
4) Before the section 7 begins, it says: You're not done yet! You still need to submit your FAFSA® form. After you print this page, select "Continue" to sign your FAFSA form. Do I have to print that page? (I'm not sure because the form isn't ended at that time) 5) It asks me about my driver's license, but I have a permit, do I just put my permit ID?
Great questions! For your first question here is a link to the student aid website that can provide some information on how to add more than 10 studentaid.gov/help/more-ten-colleges Yes you would still need to report tax information, under the question "What type of income tax return did your parents file for 2021?" you would select that it is a foreign tax return. If its asking you to print and sign then you will want to print it out to finish your FAFSA form as a signature will still be required from both the student and the parent. For your last question, putting in driver's license information is optional, you don't have to put anything if you don't want to/or if you don't have a license.
@@utahcollegeaccess Thank you, In the first question I answered will file, In the second one I answered foreign tax return, In the third one - don't know; But it says: "You indicated the parents will file taxes. If the parents have missed the 2021 tax filing deadline that was extended due to COVID-19, but they still plan to file a 2021 income tax return with the IRS, select "OK." Otherwise, change your answer."
@@brawlboy1382 Above selecting what type of taxes they filed for 2021, there should be an option asking for if the parent already did file taxes for 2021, will file taxes, or is not going to file. You will want to select whichever option applies to you, and that should fix that.
@@brawlboy1382 The FAFSA is asking if your parents filed taxes anywhere, not just in the US. Therefore, if your parents filed taxes in 2021 in the country you were living in during that year then you will report that information. You will do so by selecting that you filed taxes and that you filed a "foreign tax return". Then you'll answer the rest of the questions to the best of your ability and convert the currency amounts to the US dollar. Now if your parents did not file taxes in the country you resided in during 2021, I would double check IRS Publication 17, page 7, Table 1-1: www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf#page=9, to see if your parents made less than the required amounts to file taxes (you may need to convert the amount to US dollar. If so, then you can put "not going to file" in the FAFSA and won't need tax information. If they made more than the amounts listed in the IRS Publication 17, and they didn't file taxes, then you may not qualify for any aid. If this is your situation, I would work with the financial aid office at the college you are planning on attending in the fall to review your situation. Since you move here recently, I would make sure that you double-check this link to make sure you are eligible to file the FAFSA, this would be if you weren't born in the US: studentaid.gov/understand-aid/eligibility/requirements/non-us-citizens, if you are an Afghan or Ukraine refugee you qualify for aid.
Thank you for this! I work in Admissions at a state college but often find myself answering FAFSA questions and helping prospective students complete it. Love watching your videos each year to update myself to be the best prepared I can be for the students. Appreciate the work you do!
Thank you so much for this great video and instruction!!!!
As usual @Utah College Awareness & Financial Aid resources are a "jewel" to all! #CheckingouttheSpanishOneaswell!!
Thankyou so much. I found this really helpful.
Thank you so much
This is such a wonderful and detailed video. Thank you. I have a question regarding parent financials and will try and contact student aid tomorrow, but I wanted to know if under Parent Income From Work, if it includes unemployment compensation? It says for example: Parent 1 from working wages, salaries, tips, etc.) Is unemployment considered "etc." It was added in the 1040 as other income, but obviously not from work but being out of work. Thank you so much.
Yes it is included! Under the section for parent tax information it will ask about it, if you click on the gray question mark symbol next to the answer box, the FAFSA website will show you where to find it on a 1040 tax form!
Hello! I have a question, when you add the school that you are applying for in the FAFSA form, do you also create an account in the school your applying before or after FAFSA? Because I'm about to do FAFSA right now but not sure if I should make an account in the school I'm applying first or later also how does the money go to that account. Don't worry I'm going to rewatch your video and look online so you don't have to answer all of my questions, just the first one if you can! btw thank you so much for making this video because it's extremely helpful since I'm kind of doing it alone :)
Hi Cabbage, great question! To get your financial aid offer letter from the college that informs you of the aid you qualify for, you must be accepted to that college and must list them on the FAFSA. You'll probably need an account with the school to accept your offers.
I have some questions:
1) I applied to 13 schools, but here maximum you can put is 10;
How can I put all 13?
2) On parent information, it asks me if my parents
completed any kind of tax return in 2021.
But we only came 5 months ago in America,
in 2021 we weren't here. Do I choose "Not going to file"?
3) Do I have to skip the questions about my
and my parents' income and taxes? because
I'm not sure if it's asking about 2021, at that time
we weren't here.
4) Before the section 7 begins, it says:
You're not done yet!
You still need to submit your FAFSA® form. After you print this page, select "Continue" to sign your FAFSA form.
Do I have to print that page? (I'm not sure because the form isn't ended at that time)
5) It asks me about my driver's license,
but I have a permit, do I just put my
permit ID?
Thank you for the video! I have 3 questions.
1. if someone started a job in June of 2022, do they still put their income and assets even though the 22-23 FAFSA is based on the 2021 tax information
2. If someone’s parents have a bank account that is joint and they also have separate bank accounts as well, does the dependent report the assets of all 3 accounts or just the joint one?
3. If someone’s parents have a bank account that is joint and one parent also has a separate account for their business, does the dependent report the assets of the joint account and the business account combined?
Great Questions!
To answer:
1. No you would not need to report it until next year, only your taxes from 2021 will be reported.
2. Yes, you will have to report all three of them under current assets
3. You do not need to report the business account unless there are 100 employees or more! If there are then you would add it.
Hope this helps!
Hello. Thank you for a great video! A question about parents financials. A student's parents are noncitizen so zeroes were entered for both parents’ social security numbers, foreign country was selected for both, then not going to file taxes, and finally entered earnings information but till asked about IRS information and cannot proceed. Any idea what's going wrong?
At what question is it asking for IRS information? Even with the error showing up, are you able to click continue?
I usually answer ‘No’ to the parent assests questions but I did not get an option of Yes or No this time. Instead I got “Does it exceed $0.00?” Did I not get the Yes or No option for assets because I used the tax data retrieval form for IRS instead of filling manually? So, I’m supposed to combine what my parents have in their checking account, their saving account, and all the cash is their wallet? Does the include how much money is in their debit card? Only my father works so do i only use his information?
Yes, you will need to list all the assets your parents have in the parent financials section and then later you will need to list all your assets in the student financials section. In the first box you will need to combine the following amounts as of today: checking account amount, savings account amount, and any cash.
Then in the second box, you will need to list the net worth of your parent's investments including: 529 accounts, stocks/bonds outside of retirement, value of cryptocurrencies, real estate beyond your parent's primary residence, etc.
In the third box, you will list the net worth of your parents' current businesses and/or investment farms such as: a business with 100 or more full-time employees and a non-family-operated farm
What you should not list here is your parent's primary residence, any vehicles they drive, and any retirement accounts or retirement investments.
Hello! I want to ask about question 84 (parents’ income). My line 1 on the 1040 Form is empty, and I don’t have any other forms such as Schedule 1, Schedule K-2, or a W-2. Do I put my mother’s income as $0 (she’s single)? But the thing that confuses me is that she did work and her adjusted gross income is ~$10,000.
And the video is very helpful! Thank you so much!
Thank you for your question! Many may not have a number in line 1, I would review to see if there is information on line 9. Line 9 is the total income on the 2021 1040 tax form, it won't have the exact answer but it could help you as you are trying to find how much money your parent made. If your mother is divorced or separate then most likely how much she made will be around line 9 and line 11. If you are having a hard time finding that amount, I would just ask your parent how much they made for the 2021 year. You can ballpark the number if you are having issues, just make sure you try to get as close as possible.
If your parent is married or living together, then that total income and adjust gross income is split between both parents and you'll need to figure out how much one parent made compare to the other to get those numbers.
Do you create a new save key or use the old one? What if you forgot the old how do you create a new one
Great question, you use the Save Key you created when you started the application. If you forgot what it is then there is a button you can click that says "forgot my save key".
Hi for the parents income from work, does unemployment benefit count as income from work ? Thank you so much
Do I have to put it at untaxed income 24:15 ?
@@khoalatoi6966 No, unemployment benefits will be accounted in the adjusted gross income portion. You don't need to report it elsewhere.
Is there a pro or con of the FAFSA being completed via the student vs the parent ID?
Great question, both are the same because both will require the same information. Both can also be resumed later on using the "Save Key" that you create when first starting the application.
i got a question if you are under a guardianship but are dependent on their taxes do i not check that question and list myself as a dependent or do i check it and consider myself an independent?
Great Question Karla! If someone other than your parent or stepparent has legal guardianship over you as determined by a court in your state. Even if they report you as a dependent on their taxes, you can still check the box on your FAFSA and you do not need to report their information!
Hello! I have a question for the parents income from work, only one of both of my married parents work, do I put 0 on parent 2?
Hi Maria, Yes if parent 2 did not work at all then you will just leave that box as zero.
Even if they filled as married filling jointly?@@utahcollegeaccess
@@mariaencalada291 Yes, it shouldn't cause a problem if one parent didn't work and didn't earn any money for that tax year. It's actually quite common for families (married filed jointly families) to have one parent that does not have any earnings for the year.
For parent demographics. what option needs to be selected for widowed moms? Should we select , my parents are married
In the case of a parent that is widowed there is an option for it when responding to the question "As of today, what is the marital status of your parents?" If you pause this video at 14:35 you can also see it listed as the last option under the question.
Hello, I am planning to apply to get a job soon and this will be my first job ever. I already submitted the fafsa and i put $0.00 for my asset and income because I have never had a job or a bank account. If I get this job and get a check, do I makes changes to the fafsa form because I have money now and will open a bank account once I get the job or were all the questions on the 23-24 fafsa form applied to the year prior? Thank you.
Great question Kindree! Because you are just starting the job, you don't need to list what you earn from it on the 23-24 FAFSA because you report your income for 2021. Next year, when you file your taxes for 2022, you will report it on the 24-25 FAFSA!
Hello I have a question! For the student tax filing status. I didn’t work. It says for 2021 have I completed any IRS income tax return. Which I did not. What do I select? If I do select one of the options do I insert 0 for all?
Great question! If you didn't work you can select "Not going to file" and you can put a 0 for income. There are a few questions that ask about savings accounts and different forms of income, you will want to look over those and see if any of those apply to you, if not you can put a 0 for those as well!
Thank you so much! Also 1 last question. Kind of personal dilema here. The section where it asks how many dependents there is has me going back and forth. There are 5 in tota(family)l. The question asked are there any other dependents not including me of course. My brother stays with us but does not pay any rent. But He receives disability checks. I heard in a FAFSA help video where the dependent turns 24 is no longer dependent. My question is he a dependent? He basically maintains himself with his checks that he receives. This whole situation has me very confused and I don’t want to put the wrong number of dependents. If I remove him the household number becomes 4. Which it’s not correct because he still lives here. He is 23, but not going to college yet. @@utahcollegeaccess
@@elenalu5877 That part of the FAFSA has nothing to do with who they report on their taxes as a dependent. Anyone who is living with your parents, receives more than half their support financially from them, and will continue to do so for the next school year would be included as an other dependent! Hope this helps!
@@utahcollegeaccess Thank you ! Makes sense!
I have a question I immigrated to us last year and i have never been enrolled to any college or school in US can i still apply for Fafsa before getting enrolled?
Yes you can still apply for FAFSA, the section about state residency on the FAFSA asks about citizenship status, so you will just want to pick what applies to you!
@@utahcollegeaccess thankyou
@@CalifornianWanderLust It also depends on your legal status, I would review this webpage to make sure you have all the right documents in preparation to filing the FAFSA: studentaid.gov/understand-aid/eligibility/requirements/non-us-citizens
In addition, in-state tuition is a possibility depending on the state. In Utah, if you are a permanent resident, a refugee, an asylum grantee, or have a green card then you need to have lived in Utah for at least 12 months. If you are undocumented or have DACA, TPS, or DED then I would look into HB 144 for Utah here: educate-utah.org/hb144-facts/
@@utahcollegeaccess thanks for the link💓
Question? I live with my parents but I make my own money I haven’t filed any taxes yet how would one go about this? Would I be an independent?
Thank you for your questions. I would review the questions on FSAs website to review whether or not you are considered independent or dependent. studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/dependency
If you answer no to all those questions your are considered dependent and will need your parent's information on the FAFSA form.
I have some questions:
1) I applied to 13 schools, but here maximum you can put is 10;
How can I put all 13?
2) On parent information, it asks me if my parents
completed any kind of tax return in 2021.
But we only came 5 months ago in America,
in 2021 we weren't here. Do I choose "Not going to file"?
3) Do I have to skip the questions about my
and my parents' income and taxes? because
I'm not sure if it's asking about 2021, at that time
we weren't here.
4) Before the section 7 begins, it says:
You're not done yet!
You still need to submit your FAFSA® form. After you print this page, select "Continue" to sign your FAFSA form.
Do I have to print that page? (I'm not sure because the form isn't ended at that time)
5) It asks me about my driver's license,
but I have a permit, do I just put my
permit ID?
Great questions!
For your first question here is a link to the student aid website that can provide some information on how to add more than 10 studentaid.gov/help/more-ten-colleges
Yes you would still need to report tax information, under the question "What type of income tax return did your parents file for 2021?" you would select that it is a foreign tax return.
If its asking you to print and sign then you will want to print it out to finish your FAFSA form as a signature will still be required from both the student and the parent.
For your last question, putting in driver's license information is optional, you don't have to put anything if you don't want to/or if you don't have a license.
@@utahcollegeaccess Thank you, In the first question I answered will file, In the second one I answered foreign tax return, In the third one - don't know; But it says: "You indicated the parents will file taxes. If the parents have missed the 2021 tax filing deadline that was extended due to COVID-19, but they still plan to file a 2021 income tax return with the IRS, select "OK." Otherwise, change your answer."
@@brawlboy1382 Above selecting what type of taxes they filed for 2021, there should be an option asking for if the parent already did file taxes for 2021, will file taxes, or is not going to file. You will want to select whichever option applies to you, and that should fix that.
@@utahcollegeaccess So if we weren’t here at that time I pick not going to file? Because we immigrated this year
@@brawlboy1382 The FAFSA is asking if your parents filed taxes anywhere, not just in the US. Therefore, if your parents filed taxes in 2021 in the country you were living in during that year then you will report that information. You will do so by selecting that you filed taxes and that you filed a "foreign tax return". Then you'll answer the rest of the questions to the best of your ability and convert the currency amounts to the US dollar.
Now if your parents did not file taxes in the country you resided in during 2021, I would double check IRS Publication 17, page 7, Table 1-1: www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf#page=9, to see if your parents made less than the required amounts to file taxes (you may need to convert the amount to US dollar. If so, then you can put "not going to file" in the FAFSA and won't need tax information. If they made more than the amounts listed in the IRS Publication 17, and they didn't file taxes, then you may not qualify for any aid. If this is your situation, I would work with the financial aid office at the college you are planning on attending in the fall to review your situation.
Since you move here recently, I would make sure that you double-check this link to make sure you are eligible to file the FAFSA, this would be if you weren't born in the US: studentaid.gov/understand-aid/eligibility/requirements/non-us-citizens, if you are an Afghan or Ukraine refugee you qualify for aid.