Not necessarily. Using my hypothetical above, the student who was gifted $10k by a grandparent who was hoping it would be used for college could have turned around a week after the gift was made and used the money to buy a car. It would not then be on hand when FAFSA is completed, so the now spent gift money is not still around to be reported as an asset. It’s quite common for the same dollar to be reported on FAFSA as both income (taxed or otherwise) and an asset.
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