Updating FAFSA With IRS Data Retrieval Tool

HomeFinanceFinancial aidShould You Update FAFSA By Using The IRS Data Retrieval Tool?This page may contain affiliate links.Oct 23, 2019There is no rule that requires you to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, (DRT), however, the Department of Education would be very happy if everyone did use it when filing the FAFSA. And, in the past, weve had several members of our Paying For College 101 group mention they have received an email suggesting they do so. Should you use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool or not? Who Is Eligible to Use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool Most students and parents who filed a U.S tax return with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are eligible to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (IRS DRT) if they have already filed their taxes. Those who can not use the tool (as stated on the studentaid.ed.gov website) The student/parent is married, and either the student/parent or his/her spouse filed as Married Filing Separately. The student/parent is married, and either the student/parent or his/her spouse filed as Head of Household. The parents’ marital status is â€Å"Unmarried and both legal parents living together.† The student/parent filed a Puerto Rican, foreign tax return, or an IRS Form 1040-NR or 1040NR-EZ Any students or parents who meet the above criteria will need to manually enter their tax return information. Additionally, students or parents who filed their tax returns electronically within the last three weeks or through the mail within the last 11 weeks, might need to manually enter their tax return information or return at a later date to transfer their tax return information into theFree Application of Federal Student Aid(FAFSA ®) form because their tax return information might not be available for transfer from the IRS. IRA rollover: proceed with caution If you rolled over an IRA or pension plan in your FAFSA tax year, your income and expected family contribution (EFC) could be artificially inflated, reducing the amount of aid you qualify could for. For the past few years, the IRS DRT system has not properly retrieved and applied information related to IRA or pension plan rollovers. The data retrieval tool does not identify and exclude tax return IRA and/or Pension distributions that have been rolled over into another account. Be aware that for security measures, once information is imported into the FAFSA application, the fields will be marked as complete, but will not show the values. You will not be able to see or alter the imported numbers, which is problematic when rollovers are not properly handled. Benefits of Using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool It has been suggested that using the IRS DRT may potentially reduce the chance of the student’s FAFSA being selected for verification. If this is true, thats a good thing, as being selected for verification takes time and effort. Here are our suggestion To be on the safe side, whether you choose to use DRT or not,order your tax transcripts just in case the school asks for verification and make sure your student is checking his/her student portals for any requests for docs and/or financial aid award notices. You can order your tax transcript here and remember it is for the tax year you used for filing FAFSA. Connect With Other Parents Trying To Figure Out How To Pay For College JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP – PAYING FOR COLLEGE 101 SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSaveSaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSaveSaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave Road2College Debbie Schwartz is former financial services executive and founder of Road2College and the Paying For College 101 Facebook group. She's dedicated to providing families with trustworthy information about college admissions and paying for college. With data, tools and access to experts she's helping families become educated consumers of higher ed. View all posts CATEGORIES FinanceFinancial aid TAGS FAFSAFAFSA VerificationIRS Data Retrieval ToolNEWER POST10 Talks To Have With Your Child As They Transition To CollegeOLDER POSTWhere To Get Cheap Textbooks For College