If you're working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), complete and submit the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) & Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) Certification & Application (PSLF) form annually or when you change employers. If you've made 120 qualifying payments, fill out and submit this same form.
If you repay your loans under an IDR plan, any remaining balance on your student loans will be forgiven after you make a certain number of payments over 20 or 25 years. Past periods of repayment, deferment, and forbearance might now count toward IDR forgiveness because of the payment count adjustment.
Any borrower with ED-held loans that have accumulated time in repayment of at least 20 or 25 years will see automatic forgiveness, even if the loans are not currently on an IDR plan. Borrowers with FFELP loans held by commercial lenders or Perkins loans not held by ED can benefit if they consolidate into Direct Loans.
Only federal direct loans qualify for loan forgiveness. You can't avail it for private loans. These programmes aren't an option for defaulted loans. You'll need to use consolidation or rehabilitation to get defaulted federal student loans in good standing before they're eligible for forgiveness programmes.
Your student loan servicer(s) will notify you directly after your forgiveness is processed. Make sure to keep your contact information up to date on StudentAid.gov and with your servicer(s). If you haven't yet qualified for forgiveness, you'll be able to see your exact payment counts in the future.
You'll be notified or see a $0 balance
From this point on, your days of making monthly student loan payments are over. That is, unless, only a portion of your debt is canceled. If you still owe a remaining balance, you will still continue to owe monthly payments.
You can still apply for Student Loan Forgiveness in 2024. Despite the Supreme Court striking down Biden's initial plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loans, the president has introduced other programs that have provided $167.3 billion in student loan forgiveness to over 4 million borrowers.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
PSLF is one of the few programs that is excluded from federal income taxes; none of the forgiven loan amount is taxable as income.
Many student loan borrowers have an opportunity to receive full student loan cancellation or more credit towards cancellation. The U.S. Department of Education will conduct a one-time adjustment this summer , but you may need to take steps to qualify. The deadline to act is June 30, 2024. Here's what you need to know.
If you qualify for forgiveness of the full amount of your loan(s), you won't have to make any more loan payments. If you qualify for forgiveness of only a portion of your loan(s), you're still responsible for repaying the remaining balance.
Once we've received all of the documentation needed to determine whether you qualify for loan forgiveness, you'll be notified. A final review of your account will be done to process forgiveness, which will take at least 90 business days.
If you choose to manually submit your form, you'll need to send it using one of the methods below. Fax your PSLF form to 540-212-2415. Or, upload your form by logging in to StudentAid.gov and navigating to My Activity.
Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Forgiveness
If you repay your loans under an IDR plan, any remaining balance on your student loans will be forgiven after you make a certain number of payments over 20 or 25 years—or as few as 10 years under our newest IDR plan, the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan.
Submitting a PSLF form every year is the best way to validate your progress and stay on track for PSLF. The PSLF form confirms your employer's eligibility in order to update your qualifying payment count.
Right now, anyone who receives student loan forgiveness between 2021 and 2025 will not have to pay taxes on any amount of student debt forgiveness. PSLF or IDR forgiveness is a potential result for any borrower. However, not all borrowers will reach forgiveness.
Generally, a borrower is provided a 1099-C tax form when debt is canceled or forgiven, which reports the forgiven amount as taxable income to the IRS and the taxpayer. The current treatment is generally consistent with the “Haig-Simons” definition of income: consumption plus change in net worth.
Typically, these refunds are intended to cover school-related expenses such as off-campus housing, supplies or transportation. However, there are also cases in which students have borrowed more than they actually needed, resulting in a refund check. It's important to know that refund checks are not “free” money.
How Will I Find Out if I'm Approved for Student Loan Forgiveness? If you have applied for forgiveness under a program like the PSLF or Teacher Loan Forgiveness program, your student loan servicer will notify you regarding your loan being forgiven totally or partially with a remaining balance, depending on the program.
You can take a tax deduction for the interest paid on student loans that you took out for yourself, your spouse, or your dependent. This benefit applies to all loans (not just federal student loans) used to pay for higher education expenses. The maximum deduction is $2,500 a year.
PSLF forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 qualifying payments while working full-time for a qualifying employer. Only payments made under certain repayment plans (primarily income-driven repayment plans) qualify for PSLF.
Student loans disappear from credit reports 7.5 years from the date they are paid in full, charged-off, or entered default. However, education debt can reappear if you dig out of default with consolidation or loan rehabilitation. Student loans can have an outsized impact on your credit score.
After you submit your Student Loan Debt Relief Application, you will receive an email confirmation. The federal government will review your application and determine whether you are eligible for relief. They will contact you with instructions if they need more information.
Credit mix: Those who qualify for loan forgiveness may see their scores drop by a few points if the student loan was their only installment loan, as their credit mix (i.e., the different types of credit accounts they have) accounts for 10% of their FICO Score.