Posted Date:June 25, 2013
Author: | Lisa DiCarlo, Director, Student Experience Group, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: Overview of July and September 2013 Enhancements to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on the Web
As part of Federal Student Aid’s ongoing mission to simplify and streamline the student aid application experience for students and parents, several enhancements to the FAFSA on the Web site will be implemented on July 1, 2013 and September 22, 2013, respectively.
In order to better support applicants and their parents with inquiries related to these enhancements, financial aid administrators and support staff should familiarize themselves with these upcoming changes and update any training materials or services.
July 2013
Updated 2012-2013 Corrections Deadline – The federal corrections filing deadline will be updated on the Student Aid Deadlines page and help text on the Web site to indicate that corrections to 2012-2013 student data must be submitted by midnight Central Time on September 21, 2013. Currently the Web site indicates the deadline to submit a correction to student data is September 24, 2013. For more information on 2012-2013 application and correction deadlines, see the February 28, 2013 Federal Register published to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site.
Dynamic Display of Tax Line Numbers – Student Application Entry and Student Correction Entry will be enhanced to dynamically display the applicable Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax form line number associated with the student and parent Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), Income Tax Paid, and Exemptions fields on FAFSA on the Web. The Web site will determine the appropriate IRS tax form line number to display based on the tax return type and tax filing status indicated by the student or parent.
September 2013
Income Earned from Work Values Now Transferred by IRS Data Retrieval Tool – Federal Student Aid is enhancing the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (IRS DRT) process to transfer student and parent Income Earned from Work values from the IRS into the FAFSA. The Income Earned from Work field will now be automatically updated with the IRS value for students who use the IRS DRT and indicate a marital status of Single, Separated, or Divorced or Widowed and for parents of dependent applicants who indicate a marital status of Single, Divorced or Separated, or Widowed. For those who do not use the IRS DRT, dynamic tax form line numbers associated with the Income Earned from Work fields will display based on the tax return type and tax filing status indicated by the student or parent.
Note the following additional enhancements associated with this IRS DRT change:
The student and parent Income Earned from Work fields will be updated to display dynamic text indicating if the field value was transferred from the IRS. An informational message will display if the student or parent modified the value transferred from the IRS. This logic is different from the current text that appears as “Transferred from the IRS.” Also, a modification to this field will not change the IRS Request Flag values.
If a student and/or parent indicate a marital status of Married/Remarried, the Income Earned from Work amount from the IRS will be transferred and displayed in a view-only Total Income Earned from Work field. The student and/or parent must then allocate the total amount appropriately between each spouse.
A new Schedule K-1 filtering question will display below the student and parent Income Earned from Work questions if the tax return type is 1040. The response to the filtering question will default to “No.” If the student or parent updates the filtering question response to “Yes,” the new Schedule K-1 fields will require the student or parent user (and their spouses, if married) to enter a valid, non-negative value. Note: a negative value should be entered as a zero. When a Schedule K-1 amount is entered, the FAFSA will calculate the total Income Earned from Work for the student, student’s spouse, father, and/or mother by adding the Schedule K-1 amount to the Income Earned from Work originally provided for that individual.
The Total Income Earned from Work, Schedule K-1 filtering question, and Schedule K-1 fields will only be displayed in the transaction for which data was transferred using the IRS DRT. The calculated total of Income Earned from Work and Schedule K-1 amounts will display in the respective student and parent Income Earned from Work fields in subsequent transactions viewed on the Web site.
The ideas and recommendations offered by students, parents, financial aid professionals, and other partners continue to guide the enhancements made to FAFSA on the Web, and Federal Student Aid welcomes that feedback to improve the user experience.
If You Have Questions
If you have any questions regarding the upcoming changes described in this message, contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 800-4-FEDAID (800-433-3243) or by e-mail at FederalStudentAidCustomerService@ed.gov. TDD/TTY service is also available at 800-730-8913.