(GENERAL-24-108) 2024-25 FAFSA Verification-Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Return Transcript Matrix

Author
Federal Student Aid
Electronic Announcement ID
GENERAL-24-108
Subject
2024-25 FAFSA Verification-Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Return Transcript Matrix

Attached to this Electronic Announcement is the 2024-25 FAFSA Verification-IRS Tax Return Transcript Matrix that institutions can use for 2024-25 verification of tax return information entered by the applicant on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application.  

Since the IRS Tax Return Transcript does not have line or item numbers and uses wording that may be different from what is used on the FAFSA form, this matrix may help financial aid administrators map 2022 IRS Tax Return Transcript information to FAFSA/ISIR data. The first column of the matrix lists the nine 2024-25 FAFSA information items that, consistent with the Sept. 19, 2023 Federal Register notice (88 FR 64421), may need to be verified for a student or contributor who is a U.S. tax filer.

The second column displays the student and contributor FAFSA question number for each item. The third column displays the student and contributor ISIR item number from the 2024-25 FAFSA Specifications Guide, Volume 4 – Record Layouts and Processing Codes. The fourth column of the matrix is the item name as displayed on the IRS Tax Return Transcript. Note that for some items the transcript may display two or three values for an item. If only one value is displayed on the transcript, that value must be used for verification. If more than one value is displayed on the transcript, the value associated with the item name that includes the words “Per Computer” must be used for verification, which may be different than what was reported by the tax filer. The last column shows the corresponding line-item numbers from the 2022 IRS 1040 tax return.

Tax Data Received from the FA-DDX and Manually Entered Information

In late March, the Department identified data consistency issues in the tax information provided by the IRS before March 30, 2024, which was included on ISIRs before that date for 2024-25 FAFSA applications. These issues are described in detail in Electronic Announcement (GENERAL-24-29), published April 1, 2024. The Department announced its plan for system fixes, instruction updates, and reprocessing for impacted FAFSA applications in Electronic Announcement (GENERAL-24-37), published on April 9, 2024. Further, the Department provided guidance for institutions to generate aid awards using ISIRs affected by errors in Electronic Announcement (GENERAL-24-39), published on April 11, 2024.

As a reminder, for the 2024-25 award year, the Department significantly reduced verification selection. Schools are also reminded that the IRS is the required source of tax information for the FAFSA form. When Federal tax information (FTI) is received from the IRS via the FA-DDX, the FTI is considered verified and no additional documentation is required. Other tax documentation, such as applicant-provided tax returns or transcripts, is secondary to the FTI received from the IRS via the FA-DDX, except when you are aware that an applicant or contributor filed an amended return (see Chapter 4 of the 2024-25 Application and Verification Guide). Finally, institutions are reminded of the acceptable access and use of FTI outlined in the Electronic Announcement (General-23-34).

Note: For the 2024-25 award year, reference to erroneous $1 AGIs and the Post Unemployment Compensation Exclusion Adjustment has been removed from the matrix since they do not affect 2022 tax returns or tax transcripts. For more information on this previous issue, please see the Electronic Announcement (VERIF-22-01).

Attachments

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