Income Bracket for Financial Aid

Paying for College
1

<p>Alright so without divulging too much unnecessary personal information I would like to ask the collegeconfidential community for their opinion on this matter.</p>

<p>My family is in the bottom/second-to-bottom income tax bracket and I wanted to know whether or not it would be a good idea to try and earn money online.
Of course the obvious answer is yes, the more money you have stockpiled the better. However with these financial aid situations and the economy the way it is, I don’t want to accidentally kick myself down on the ‘priority financial need’ list just because I was able to make a couple extra hundred dollars online.</p>

<p>Also what is the minimum that needs to be reported? I remember reading something about $400 minimum … or maybe that’s just what you need to pay tax on?</p>

2

<p>Are you the student? If so, you have an income protection allowance for FAFSA of around $5200/year. Below that level, your income will not increase your EFC. Check irs.gov for tax filing requirements for your situation. I think you’re correct that you’ll have to file if you are self-employed and make more than $400 but, where the IRS is concerned, it’s better to check for yourself than get advice from random people on the internet!</p>

3

<p>Yes, I am the student in question.
Oh wow, I didn’t even know there was such thing as an income protection allowance, but for that to exist at to be at $5,200/year is more than perfect!
Well, taking your advice, would you happen to have a link to where I can read the “official” notice on the income protection allowance matter?</p>

<p>As for the IRS and taxes, I will go research that now.
Thank you for the quick and informative response sk8rmom</p>

4

<p>Looks like it’s actually gone up to $6K for next year’s FAFSA…it’s actually part of the EFC formula so you can find it by looking at the worksheet for dependent students (pg 10):</p>

<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>Oh wow, thank you again sk8rmom!</p>