Have your ever experienced your financial aid being updated?

[BelknapPoint]

The FAFSA often links to the tax return for the year (2018 for 2020-21 School Year) through the IRS Retrieval Tool. If that does not happen, a school might request the IRS transcript or actual return during a Verification process.

A school can “request” whatever they want, but the IRS will not release private tax information to a third party without the taxpayer’s approval or a court order.

If a school updated a financial aid offer for the 2020-2021 academic year using 2019 tax information, that could only have happened with the taxpayer’s cooperation.