All employers, schools, organizations, etc. are required to send your tax information to you by January 31 of each year.
Examples: W-2s (from your employer- record of wages earned)
1098T (record of college tuition and fees)
1099 Misc (record of non employer wages)***For more information visit www.irs.gov.
If you are planning to attend college and apply for federal financial aid during the timeframe of July 1 through June 31, file your taxes as soon as possible, rather than aiming for the April 15 deadline or requesting an extension. For dependent students, the same applies to your parents. For married independent students, the same applies to your spouse.
Why?
Internal Revenue Service Data Retrieval – Information from your taxes can be automatically transferred to your Free Application for Federal Student Aid, but only a couple weeks after the taxes are processed.
As of January 1, the latest Free Application for Federal Student Aid was available at www.fafsa.ed.gov. The application requires entry of the student’s (and parents for dependent students or spouse for married independent students) tax information. This information can be estimated or entered based on tax information before the taxes have been officially filed, however, the easiest way to ensure less of a headache with processing a FAFSA will be to file taxes FIRST.
***The quickest way to file taxes is to e-file. A tax preparer can still be used when e-filing, see http://www.irs.gov/Filing.
If data is transferred directly from the IRS with no updates made, then those data elements will not be required to be further verified by the Central Processing System (CPS). Estimated amounts without completed tax returns can lead to a slower processing time due to the possibility of corrections needing to be made, and additional verification items being requested.
