@BelknapPoint - I am specifically talking about people who do not own their companies outright. My husband owns 50% of the law firm. His partner owns 50%. The assets do not belong to my husband. They do not belong to his partner. They belong to the firm, which is a completely separate entity from either one of the owners. If my husband spent the firm’s assets on tuition he would be stealing from the company. The firm’s assets are 100% unavailable to my husband for any purpose other than running the firm (paying rent, salaries, firm expenses, etc.).
@thumper1 - I am not saying that at all. I am saying that assets in a corporation are not at the disposal of the owner of the company if the company is not 100% owned. If it is 100% owned that is a different story.
@Postmodern - My husband owns a law firm. Other than the cash in the bank the firm has little value. It is not really worth anything on the open market.
We don’t have a K1. This is a C Corp. We file an 1120. When the 1120 is submitted a balance sheet is attached so colleges will see the balance sheet. There isn’t much in the way of assets other than cash and receivables. Some firms have lots of assets that are not readily saleable and that are used to fund the business. For those people those assets are not readily available. They belong to the corporation, not the owners.
Additionally, this is NOT about me. I do not expect to get any FA regardless of what is on the CSS Profile. I do think that it can be very deceptive when colleges look at JOINTLY OWNED businesses and assume that the assets of the business are available to the owner for college.
@class0f2017 - If you submit your 1120 won’t COGS be on the form? We don’t have inventory so I am not familiar with what is reported for other sorts of businesses.