| PublicationDate: 10/18/99 Summary: School Partners Fix FAFSA Author: PSS - Program Systems Service Posted on October 18, 1999 School Partners Fix FAFSA Special thanks to Iris Godes at Boston University who called us on Friday, October 15, about an error on the 2000-2001 FAFSA Worksheet A (an incorrect tax line reference) after we had started printing and shipping the new FAFSAs. We stopped the presses, turned the trucks around, and are collecting as many of the 100,000 that had been delivered as we can. While rechecking the line references we discovered another error regarding the TeleFile tax references. We have made those changes too. The corrected copies are being distributed now. It put us days behind schedule and we apologize for the delay. But Iris keen eye saved us all what would have been a lot more cost and delay later. Also, thanks to comments received at the Pennsylvania Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators Fall Conference about the FAFSA, applicants will not be confused when filling out the item on Worksheet A about Payments to tax-deferred pension and savings plans. The clarified wording is: Payments to tax-deferred pension and savings plans (paid directly or withheld from earnings), including amounts reported on the W-2 Form in Box 13, codes D, E, F, G, H, and S. Include untaxed portions of 401(k) and 403(b) plans. The correct references are as follows: On Page 8, in Worksheet A, the IRS 1040 line item reference for "Deductible IRA and/or Keogh payments" were incorrectly given as "lines 23 and 28." The correct 1040 line item for Keogh payments is 29, not 28. TeleFile tax references on the form are also incorrect. The correct TeleFile line item for AGI is Line I, income tax paid is Line K, and Earned Income Credit is Line L. As referenced in the instructions, for exemptions use Line J. The 2000-2001 Renewal FAFSA Instructions, the 2000-2001 Spanish FAFSA, and all 2000-2001 electronic application products will have the corrected line items when they are released. These products will be available as scheduled: Renewal FAFSAs will be mailed in late November and December; Spanish FAFSAs in early December; EDExpress version 6.0 will be released in December; and FAFSA on the Web and FAFSA Express will be available on the Web January 3, 2000. We will resume shipping on Wednesday, October 20. We fill all orders using UPS, and East Coast schools generally receive their FAFSAs within 2 days. Shipments to the West Coast normally take 6 days, and to expedite these deliveries, we will be using 2-day air express. We are calling the 61 schools that received the incorrect FAFSAs. They can either destroy them or well send a truck to pick them up. We have set up special procedures for any forms that slip through the cracks. We have changed the Post Office Box number to PO Box 4015 to distinguish the correct forms. Any incorrect forms will go to the old post office number and we will print a special comment on the SAR (and ISIR comment code) to request applicants to double check their data reported in the affected lines. We apologize for any confusion these errors on some paper 2000-2001 FAFSAs will cause. Thank you for your patience and cooperation. |