The 2024–25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form asks for your (the student's) and your family's 2022 income and tax information.
Your and your contributor's federal income tax return (accessible online) Records of your and your contributor's child support received. Records of your and your contributor's assets. List of school you're interested in attending.
FAFSA Document Checklist:
Your Social Security card and driver's license, and/or alien registration card if you are not a US citizen. Your 2023 federal income tax returns (you don't have to wait - you can use the most recent returns you have from last year), W-2s, and other records of money earned.
When you're filing for FAFSA, they always ask for the taxes from 2 years prior than the year your requesting aid. Some reasons for this is because it eliminates estimating income and tax information before taxes are filed and enables submitting a FAFSA form as early as October of the year before attending school.
However, students with a zero EFC may qualify for the maximum federal Pell Grant, which is $7,395 for the 2023–2024 award year (July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024). To qualify for a zero EFC on the 2023-2024 FAFSA, a family with dependent students can't make more than $29,000 annually.
Undergraduate students under age 24 as of December 31 of the award year are considered independent for federal student aid purposes.
Students selected for verification of their FAFSA form may wonder, “Does FAFSA check your bank accounts?” FAFSA does not directly view the student's or parent's bank accounts.
The verification process involves submitting documents such as tax transcripts and W-2 forms so the financial aid office at your college can see that the information on these documents matches your FAFSA application.
If you don't have Schedule 2 for FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), you may not need to report additional taxes. However, it's essential to consult with a tax professional or the IRS for specific guidance.
Additionally, the Department is now processing 2024-25 FAFSA paper applications within 7-10 days or less of receipt. The Department is also reprocessing a small number of paper applications that encountered issues during initial processing. We will communicate with these applicants if further information is needed.
Fortunately, if your parents' failure to file is authorized, you'll be able to fill out the FAFSA using other documents. It'll just take a little more work.
If your parents are married (not separated) and filed taxes jointly, only one parent is required to be a contributor. If your parents are married (not separated) and didn't file taxes jointly, both of your parents are contributors.
If you are missing documents, you can get copies from the IRS. If you are missing your tax returns, you can request a tax return transcript, and if you are missing your W-2s, you can request a wage and income transcript.
Gavin Newsom signed a bill on March 25 extending the deadline for California students to file their FAFSA to May 2, 2024, in order to be eligible for state financial aid.
Administered by the U.S. Department of Education, FAFSA is a form used by students in the U.S. to apply for federal financial aid, including grants, loans, and work-study programs. In reality, there are no specific income caps for federal financial aid through FAFSA.
With consent and approval, we can obtain your federal tax information automatically from the IRS to help complete the FAFSA form. If consent and approval are not provided by the student and all contributors on the FAFSA form, the student will not be eligible for federal student aid, including grants and loans.
Federal income tax returns; records of child support received; and your current balance of cash, savings, and checking accounts (Note: You must provide consent and approval to disclose your federal tax information to be eligible for federal student aid.) Bank statements and records of investments (if applicable)
The maximum amount of money you can get from a Pell Grant is: $7,395 (2024–25). The amount granted depends on your Student Aid Index (SAI), cost of attendance, your status as a full-time or part-time student, and your plans to attend school for a full academic year or less.
The student should keep no cash or cash equivalents saved in their name. Students are punished by the FAFSA for saving any cash. The FAFSA will specifically ask “As of today what is the cash balance of checking, savings…” accounts for the student.
IRS partnered with the Department of Education (ED) to simplify the online process to apply for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and Income Driven Repayment (IDR) plans by providing limited tax information necessary to verify income for these programs directly to ED.
The FAFSA® requests family income information from two years prior. This allows the FAFSA to use the FUTURE Act Direct Data Exchange (FA-DDX), a resource that quickly pulls in tax information and makes completing the FAFSA much simpler.
Typically, independent students tend to receive more funding from the FAFSA than dependent students. This is primarily because the SAI for independent students is often lower, as it does not take into account their parents' income and assets.
There are other items you should have on hand to complete the FAFSA form: your child's SSN (and Alien Registration number [A-number] if they are an eligible noncitizen) your spouse's name, date of birth, SSN (if they have one), and email address if you're married.
There is no age limit for how long you can claim adult children or other relatives as dependents, but they must meet other IRS requirements to continue to qualify. Additionally, once they are over 18 and no longer a student, they can only qualify as an "other dependent," not a qualifying child.