IRS Data Retrieval Tool & FAFSA

MaryOC
Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:46:06 +0000

Sure wish I had found this thread a month or so ago…

We owe Federal taxes - efiled in mid-February, but were planning to hold off until later to actually cut a check. I had been checking the retrieval tool daily for both my son and daughter…and the link has not been available. I lalso requested a transcript - with a no go. My guess is its availability is contingent upon the tax return being acknowledged and accepted. I have waited on hold with IRS for up to 90 minutes on a couple of occasions to try to confirm, and the FAFSA help folks were clueless.

My son will be a returning Sophomore, and his college said as long as we updated our originally estimated FAFSA to reflect actual data from filed taxes, and fulfill our IDOC requirements by their 4/15 deadline… I can link to the IRS at a later date. They told me not to worry about it. My daughter is an incoming freshman… so I didn’t bother to call her top choices to inquire. I assume the same will hold true - they ill simply require verification of data, before releasing promised FA.

I was talking to parents of my daughter’s friends, who are in the same boat. One mother suggested the IRS processes refunds owed to taxpayers first as a priority, then they process payments received, then they process taxes owed but unpaid, etc. She suggested my return…filed February 17? isn’t even on the radar, as far as becoming available for the IRS link through FAFSA.

So last week I went ahead and cut a check to the IRS. I have reverted to checking my bank account daily, rather than the FAFSA/IRS Link. Once the check clears, I will resume my attempt to get the link to become available. Ya think the IRS underestimated the chaos that would ensue from this little exercise in futility? This is nuts.