Child's Survivor Benefits as income?

Paying for College
1

<p>Hello,
My daughter applied to USC and the FinAid office wants her to submit a Non-Filing Statement Form (among other things). There’s an on-line avenue for doing this but when attempting to fill it out, there’s a question about whether she had any income from x,y,z… (long list of possible sources of income… including Social Security)</p>

<p>Her father died last year and she did receive some survivor’s benefits - but not enough to trigger the need to file a tax return. She received about $13,000 over a seven month period.</p>

<p>We plugged in the $13000 as “Social Security” and message in red letters came up saying something to the effect of… “based on the numbers given, you must file a tax return” and there was no way to finish the online form.</p>

<p>Two questions:

  1. Are we correct that survivor’s benefits should be reported as “Social Security” (there was no distinct mention of “income from Survivor’s Benefits”) and…
  2. From the research I’ve done, only 1/2 of her benefits are taxable and that unless that amount (plus other income) is in excess of $25,000 there is no need to file a tax return for her. Is that correct? If so, why would entering $13,000 trigger the end of our session to fill out a “non-filing” statement.</p>

<p>thanks for any insight…</p>

2

<p>Your analysis of the taxability of her SS seems correct to me and I agree that she shouldn’t have to file in the absence of enough other income to require it.</p>

<p>I would contact USC and ask whether SS survivors benefits need to be reported for that question and if so, why the online program is telling you she has to file. People/organizations do write programs that aren’t correct.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your response. I’ll see what USC says and report back.</p>

4

<p>I still haven’t heard back from USC… anybody know if Survivor’s Benefits should be declared as student income?</p>