FAFSA Simplification

1. What are contributors on the FAFSA®?
A contributor refers to the student, the student’s spouse, a biological or adopted parent, or the parent’s spouse (stepparent). A contributor is NOT a grandparent, foster parents, legal guardian, brother or sister, aunt, or uncle, even if they helped provide for or raise the student in some way. Please note, a contributor on the FAFSA® form doesn’t mean they are financially responsible for the student’s education costs.

2. How are contributors determined?
The student’s or parent’s answers will determine which contributors (if any) will be required to provide information.

3. What do contributors need to provide?
These contributors will be invited to create an FSA ID and complete their portion of the FAFSA® form by entering their name, date of birth, Social Security number, and email address. They must also provide personal and financial information in their own sections of the FAFSA® form.

4. What are the steps contributors must follow?

1. The contributors receive an email informing them that they’ve been identified as a contributor.
2. The contributor creates a StudentAid.gov account if they don’t already have one.
3. The contributor logs in to account using their FSA ID account username and password.
4. The contributor reviews information about completing their section of the FAFSA® form.
5. The contributor provides the required information on the student’s FAFSA® form.

5. What if I am a contributor and don’t want to provide my information in my student’s FAFSA®?
Being a contributor does NOT implicate financial responsibility. However, if a required contributor refuses to provide their information, it will result in an incomplete FAFSA® form, and the student will become ineligible for federal student aid.

6. What if my parents are divorced? Who is the contributor to my FAFSA®?
Students that live with a single/divorced/widowed parent and receive most support from that parent, will report only one parent on the FAFSA®. The parent included in the FAFSA® as a contributor must be the parent that provides the greater portion of the student’s financial support. If that primary parent is remarried, the income of that parent’s spouse (stepparent) will also be required.

7. Why does the FAFSA® require consent from students and contributors?
According to the Future Act, all students and contributors must provide consent to the following:

• Have their federal tax information transferred directly into the FAFSA® form via direct data exchange with the IRS.
• Have their federal tax information used to determine the student’s eligibility for federal student aid; and
• Allow the U.S. Department of Education to share its federal tax information with postsecondary institutions and state higher education agencies for use in awarding and administering financial aid.
• Important: Even if students or contributors don’t have a Social Security number, didn’t file taxes, or filed taxes outside of the U.S., they still need to provide consent.

8. What if I don’t want to provide consent as a student or a required contributor?
If a student or required contributor doesn’t provide consent to have their federal tax information transferred into the FAFSA® form, the student will not be eligible for federal student aid — even if they manually enter tax information into the FAFSA® form. Information about how federal tax information will be used and the consequences of not providing consent will be included on the FAFSA® form. Legal parents must provide consent to transfer federal tax information, even if one of the parents didn’t file or had no income. If parents fail to provide consent, the student won’t be eligible to receive federal student aid.

9. What is FSA ID, and who needs it?
All students and contributors must create a StudentAid.gov account to complete the FAFSA® form online. Students and contributors will use their FSA ID account username and password to log in to their accounts. Even if a parent or spouse contributor doesn’t have a Social Security number, they can still get an FSA ID using their ITIN to fill out their portion of the student’s FAFSA® form online.

10. Do parents and students need to wait until the FAFSA® opens to create an FSA ID?
The FSA ID process is not changing. It’s even better that parents and students can create the FSA ID and have it ready any time before the FAFSA® application starts.

11. How do I or other contributors create an FSA ID?
To create an FSA ID, you’ll need your Social Security number (SSN). Other information required is full name and date of birth. You’ll also need to create a memorable username and password and complete challenge questions and answers to retrieve your account information if you forget it. You’ll be required to provide your email address or mobile phone number when you make your FSA ID. Providing a mobile phone number and/or email address that you have access to will make it easier to log in to ED online systems and allow you to verify your FSA ID before using it on the FAFSA® and additional account recovery options. This Federal Student Aid video can help create a step-by-step FSA ID.

12. Do parents without social security numbers also need to have an FSA ID?
Parents without social security numbers must create an FSA ID. When parents begin the FSA creation process, in the “Personal Information” section check the box to indicate “I don’t have a Social Security number” and click continue. When the warning appears, the parent should click “Continue Without SSN.” Parents can then proceed with the process. At the end of the process, they will be required to answer knowledge-based identity verification questions and will be instructed to provide additional information to Federal Student Aid. Identity verification will be confirmed within 1-3 days by email, after which the FSA ID will be created and ready.

13. What if my parents are not in the United States?
Your parents’ citizenship status doesn’t affect your eligibility for federal aid. They (your parents) cannot create a FSA ID if they’re not U.S. citizens but you can complete the FAFSA® on paper and ask for their signatures. For FAFSA® purposes, you must provide your parents’ income, no matter where they reside.

14. My parent(s) remarried. Is the parent’s spouse required to get an FSA ID as well?
If the parent you indicate on the FAFSA® is the parent who remarried, it’ll depend on how they filed taxes. If they filed jointly, only one parent needs an FSA ID. If they filed separately, both parents would need their own FSA ID.

15. Will parents and students need to create a new FSA ID if they have had an FSA ID in the past?
You can retrieve your existing FSA ID if you forgot your username and password.

16. I created an FSA ID at a FAFSA® night at my high school and could not use it immediately. Do you recommend creating it a few days before?
We have seen situations when a parent creates their FSA ID, verifies it, and is ready to use, and the system asks them to wait 24-48 hours to do so. It depends on the information matching system. We recommend creating it a few days before starting the form. FSA IDs made on the day of might work, but will not have full functionality yet, like using the Direct Data Exchange (FADDX) to transfer tax information.

17. Why do I have to set up two-step verification for my StudentAid.gov account?
Two-step verification, a form of multi-factor authentication (MFA), helps protect your StudentAid.gov account with additional protection from fraud.

18. Does each contributor need a unique phone number or email for multi-factor authentication?
Yes, this is very important. For example, a student and parent cannot use the same phone number for MFA.

19. Do both parents need to create FSA ID?
This depends on the family’s situation. For example, if a student has married parents filing taxes separately, both parents will need to make an FSA ID.

20. Who is my parent on the FAFSA?
Your parent on the FAFSA will be the parent who provided the most financial support during the last year. FAFSA will offer a “parent wizard,” which offers a series of filtering questions to determine which parent(s) must be included on the FAFSA.

21. What is the impact if the student and parent already have FSA IDs?
It will ensure they are verified and ready to use when the FAFSA® opens in December.

22. I’m a parent and I do not want to create an FSA ID, is there an alternative for that parent to provide consent, such as mailing a physical signature on the consent page?
There are two alternative options for contributors to provide consent who do not want to or refuse to create an FSA ID:

The other option is for the student completes their section and self-reports information for the parent section on the FAFSA® form. When the student submits their FAFSA® form without the parent’s signature, it will be placed in rejected status by the FAFSA® Processing System (FPS). The parent can then provide their signature and consent on a paper copy of the FAFSA® Submission Summary. This method is not recommended due to complexity and increased processing time. 

The first example would be the student applying using the paper FAFSA® and obtaining physical signatures from all contributors, including the parents, who also affirm their consent.

23. What is consent, and why do I have to provide it when completing the FAFSA®?
The Future Act requires that every contributor on the FAFSA® provide consent to share their taxes information in the application so that the IRS can share this information with Federal Student Aid (FSA). All parties whose Federal Tax Information (FTI) is included on a student’s FAFSA® form must consent annually.

The consent will be required when a student submits a FAFSA®, chooses Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) when starting loan repayment, or submits the Total and Permanent Disability discharge (TPD) within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for totally and permanently disabled students.

The consent is necessary not only for the Department of Education to request federal tax information from the IRS but also to use that FTI in the federal student aid application process, as well as do other things such as redisclose that information to certain eligible entities, such as higher education institutions.

24. What happens if I, as a student, or a spouse or parent, don’t want to provide consent on the FAFSA®?
If a student, spouse, or parent doesn’t provide consent on the FAFSA®, the Student Aid Index (SAI) will not be calculated, and the student will not be eligible for any federal aid.

25. What if my parents (or spouse) had a low income and were not required to file taxes?
They still need to provide consent when submitting the FAFSA®, so the IRS can confirm to Federal Student Aid (FSA) that the student, parents, and spouse didn’t file taxes.

26. Will non-custodial parents be contributors if they have not claimed the child on their taxes?
Students will determine which parent to report based on which one provides the most financial support. It is ok if the parent or parents reported do not claim the student on their taxes. The reported parents will provide consent to transfer their taxes data even if they do not claim the student on their taxes.

27. If parents that are remarried provide more support to the child than a biological parent, does the stepparent have to provide their taxes information?
Yes. If the parent providing more financial support is remarried, the stepparent’s tax information is required.

28. What if my parent or stepparent does not want to provide their tax information for my FAFSA®?
Our Federal Aid Counselors can offer to talk directly with the parent or stepparent to explain why that information is needed and answer any questions, which sometimes puts them at ease about how their sensitive info will be used. However, we cannot provide tax advice.

29. How do I report small business or farm value as assets on the FAFSA®?
Independent students or parents are the best sources for this estimate; they can also consult their accountant or other financial professional if they have access to one to estimate the amounts to report.

30. My parent(s) is self-employed – do they still need to say they own a business?
Being self-employed does end up showing business income on tax returns, but it depends on the type of work whether they will have to report any assets associated with their business.

31. I, and/or my parents or spouse, amended our taxes. Will my Federal Tax Information (FTI) be transferred, or do I have to provide a 1040X later to the school?
When the student, spouse, parent, and/or stepparent provides consent, the IRS’s Federal Tax Information (FTI) will include the information from an amended tax return.

32. Can I self-report my income on FAFSA®?
After you provide consent on the FAFSA®, if the IRS cannot transfer your Federal Tax Information (FTI) to your FAFSA® application, the application will allow you to self-report it. Self-reporting one’s tax information on the FAFSA® does not override the requirement for each required contributor to provide consent on the FAFSA® form. So, two pieces – they need to provide consent and share their tax information, either directly from the IRS or self-reported manually, on the FAFSA® form.

33. If a parent of a dependent student or an independent student is a non-filer and has zero wages, do they have to provide consent?
Any individual who is a contributor to the FAFSA® application must provide consent. This includes parents, and independent students, regardless of their tax filing status. Generally, the parents of independent students are not contributors and would, therefore, not need to provide consent.

34. What happens if a contributor provides consent but doesn’t sign the application?
There are two options for filing a FAFSA® form: electronically, through studentaid.gov, or the option to file on paper which will also be available. However, once an application is started online, all parties must complete it online. So that means that if a signature is missing, the parent or the contributor that needs to complete their section and/or sign the application must obtain an FSA ID and get into the application and complete their section.

There is no option to print a signature page. For this reason, financial aid administrators will not be able to submit complete FAFSA® forms because of the consent provision that all contributors must provide and sign.
Students and parents will be required to have an FSA ID to complete the FAFSA® application online. If they choose to mail a paper FAFSA®, both will need to provide consent on the paper FAFSA®, and both will need to provide physical signatures and mail the application to the Department of Education address on the paper application. This method is not recommended due to complexity and increased processing time.

35. In what situations will there be a match with IRS, but IRS wouldn’t provide information?
Fraud or identity theft are the most likely reasons for the IRS not providing tax information to the applicant or the contributor. If the contributor has been flagged by the IRS, possibly due to identity theft or a breach of some sort to their information, then the IRS response code will be IRS enabled to provide information.

36. If my parent does not want to or refuses to create an FSA ID, is there an alternative for that parent to provide consent, such as mailing a physical signature on the consent page?
There is no longer a separate signature page, and there won’t be a consent signature option on paper. There are two alternative options for contributors to provide consent who do not want to or refuse to create an FSA ID. One option is to submit a paper FAFSA® form completed by all contributors and mailed to the Federal Student Aid. This method is not recommended due to complexity and increased processing time.

37. What is the Student Aid Index (SAI)?
SAI, or Student Aid Index, is a number used to determine eligibility for need-based aid. It is calculated using information the student (and contributors, if required) provides on the FAFSA® form.

• Important: Your federal award equates to the following formula:
  • Need = Cost of Attendance (COA) – Student Aid Index (SAI) – Other Financial Assistance (OFA).

38. How is Pell Grant eligibility determined?
Maximum Pell Grant – Students may qualify for a maximum Pell Grant based on family size, adjusted gross income, poverty guidelines, and tax filing status. 

Student Aid Index (SAI) – Students who don’t qualify for a maximum Pell Grant may still be eligible if their calculated SAI is less than the maximum Pell Grant award for the award year. The student’s Pell Grant award will be equal to the maximum Pell Grant for the award year minus their SAI.

Minimum Pell Grant – Students whose SAI is greater than the maximum Pell Grant award for the award year may still be eligible for a Pell Grant based on family size, adjusted gross income, and poverty guidelines.

39. If the family size is manually adjusted, will the SAI only be calculated based on the size drawn from the taxes?
It will be based on the family size that the family entered, if different from the taxes. Students may have to provide additional information if selected for verification.

40. What constitutes unusual circumstances on the FAFSA®?

• Unusual circumstances are when a student is unable to contact a parent or where contact with the parent poses a risk to the student.
• Applicants who indicate on their FAFSA® form that they have unusual circumstances will be granted provisional independent status.
• Examples of unusual circumstances include human trafficking, legally granted refugee or asylum status, parental abandonment or estrangement, and student or parental incarceration.
• What else do you need to know:
  • Students with unusual circumstances will be granted provisional independent status and can complete the FAFSA® form without providing parental information.
  • Students with this provisional independent student status will receive an estimate of their federal student aid eligibility.
  • A financial aid administrator will make the final determination of a student’s unusual circumstances based on the documentation that the student submits to the school, or the financial aid administrator may perform their own personal assessment.
  • If a school approves a student’s unusual circumstances, their independent student status will remain if the student stays at the same school and their circumstances don’t change.
  • All unusual circumstances must be documented.

41. How can I be considered an independent for the FAFSA®?
An independent student is one of the following:

• born before Jan. 1, 2002
• married (and not separated)
• a graduate or professional student
• a veteran or a member of the armed forces
• an orphan
• a ward of the court
• someone with legal dependents other than a spouse
• an emancipated minor
• someone who is unaccompanied and homeless or self-supporting and at risk of being homeless

42. When should a student seek a dependency override? Only after they’ve decided on what school they’re attending?
The dependency override is an important step in seeing how much financial aid they’ll be eligible for. It is certainly a lot of work, but if the student is up to it, it’s preferable for the student to pursue the override before deciding so they can see accurate financial aid offers for each of their schools.

43. What is provisional independence?

• Students can receive provisional eligibility calculation.
• Students with unusual circumstances directed to independent student flow.
• Approved unusual circumstance determinations will carry forward.

44. What are the other types of professional judgement appeals students and families can request?
Contact Student Financial Services (SFS) if any of the above applies to you.