when my dad was doing it with me, he rounded things off. Is that ok?
thanks!
Do you mean rounding off cents to dollars on a bank acct balance? As long as it correctly represented the account balance as of the day you submitted FAFSA, that should be fine.
The income is based on the 2015 tax return, so those numbers need to be exactly like on the tax form.
The easiest way to do this, is to use the data retrieval tool in the FAFSA to import the tax information.
Explain what he did. The numbers on the fafsa need to exactly match the numbers on the 2015 tax return…no,rounding at all.
You should also be able to get bank balances online for assets as of themdate of filing.
I see NO reason why exact numbers shouldn’t have been used.
The numbers are typically rounded off to the nearest dollar for taxes and that’s fine to do for the FAFSA. If he was just guessing numbers that is not OK and won’t match up properly with the taxes. Doing that increases the odds you will be asked to verify everything and if it is off in your favor they REALLY get upset about that because technically it is fraud. For things like assets–bank accounts, retirement accounts, etc that fluctuate day to day I print out a statement for each one on the day I file so I can prove exactly what we put on those forms.
@acdchai thank you
is it necessary to print out statements for assets? That’s what my dad was estimating.
He should not have estimated. There’s no reason to estimate. Daily account balances are a mouse click or phone call away.
It’s always a good idea to print out asset statements in case you are asked for verification.
How far “off” was he? $200 or $2000? Not that it matters? The numbers should have been what they were the day you filed your FIRST fafsa for this year.
Your dad should be able to contact all the places where he has assets (banks, etc) and ask for the amount that was in those accounts on the day your FAFSA was first filed. THAT number is what should be entered on your FAFSA.
No estimates…no rounding up or down (I do think you round to the nearest dollar…but not to the nearest anything else!).
Agree, you haven’t clarified what sort of "estimating. " There’s a difference between using the most recent report on a complex investment fund vs just a guess. They have the ability to compare taxes on certain lines and question an asset. College Board discusses that. Keep your nose as clean as you can.
While the numbers are supposed to be accurate, if your dad actually had 12,000.02 in a savings account and he wrote 12,000.00, I wouldn’t freak out. I’d probably leave it alone.
However, if he has $600.000 in a savings account and he “rounded” that to $500.000, that would be an issue and need to be corrected.