FAFSA question (86/87) - Income Earned from Work

dukedad
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:21:49 +0000

For this question on the FAFSA I’ve assumed that the lines for “father/mother income earned from work” just include W-2/Business/Farm wages (lines 7/12/18 on 1040). I learned recently that this question is not used on the FAFSA for calculating parent available income, but instead is used to calculate the parent’s social security taxes, which are then used as an allowance against income in the EFC formula. Thus ALL earned income subject to FICA taxes should be included here.

In “Paying for College Without Going Broke”, it instructs that “for tax filers only - contributions to tax-deferred pension and savings plans such as 401k plans” should be included, or added back in on lines 86/87. Is this true? But medical/dental/vision and FSA deductions are not added back in?