Hi - I’ve seen a lot of similar topics but still don’t understand the mechanics of this so looking for anyone who has been through this. We filed joint in 2022 but are divorced so I don’t understand how we do the CSS documentation. I believe we are supposed to more or less come up with a split based on our 2022 taxes but the CSS forms don’t seem to allow for this. I can only select options based on how we filed in 2022. Should I (incorrectly?) put down that we filed separate and make up numbers based on our actual 2022 joint taxes or just put in the 2022 taxes as a joint filing and not do the whole custodial and non-custodial stuff?
Someone else will need to clarify…but if you are now divorced, the custodial parent puts their financials on the Profile, and the non-custodial parent puts theirs on the non-custodial parent form. You can’t do it any other way!
I’m not sure how you do this on the form, but the college board does have a help line. Just be prepared to be on hold for a while listening to bad music!
Yeah thats what I can’t figure out, is that it asks about specific lines in your tax forms but in 2022 tax year we filed jointly so this is unclear. Was hoping to avoid calling in because of the timing over the holiday but will give it a shot next week. Thanks!
You will need to have the records of your 2022 earnings to complete the form. And the FAFSA as well, because your former husband won’t be included in that.
@kelsmom how do divorced parents do the FAFSA now with the new must get info from IRS rule??
The joint return is required to be transferred from the IRS, and the parent will need to contact the schools to tell them about the divorce. They’ll need to provide proof of the income breakdown by parent (I think you can order a wage & tax transcript that will show this, but I’m not certain - you might need W-2s). The school has to make adjustments to income and taxes paid on their end … each school has to do this, so you have to provide information to each school.
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That sure is a PITA for both the schools and the families. Some improvement…not!
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But to be honest, I suspect a lot of these cases were flagged for verification, anyway. I recall doing a lot of verifications for recently divorced parents. It’s a tricky thing to recalculate income and taxes in this case, and people who did it themselves didn’t always do it correctly.
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If anyone is following this and looking for information, the correct process is you break down your joint Adjusted Gross Income, tax payments etc. by your income statements (w2 and 1099) and then explain why in the special circumstances. Your CSS submissions will be inconsistent with your 1040/IRS filings but you can explain why.
But you will be filing FAFSA, as well, so need to contact any non-CSS Profile schools to ask what they want. Your income information is going to be directly pulled from the IRS, so there’s no way for you to put just your own income information on FAFSA. Profile schools will already know because you explained in the Profile.
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