<p>EFC: 10584</p>
<p>Parent 1 Adjusted Income: 52,800
Earned Income: 52,000
Payments to saving plan: 20,000
Family size: 5
People in college during 2012-13: 1
Income tax: 0</p>
<p>Parent 2 : no income, no income tax</p>
<p>Is the $20,000 to savings- * before taxes* or * after* taxes?</p>
<p>You don’t pay ANY income tax?
That seems odd.</p>
<p>The EFC seems about right. Or, at least, it doesn’t strain the “reasonable person” standard. Is this the EFC that was delivered after completing the FAFSA?</p>
<p>My dad works for the government, so his income tax is 0. </p>
<p>The question was something like this…</p>
<p>payments to tax-deferred pension and savings plans your parents made or expect to make in 2011. </p>
<p>My dad entered 20,000 after looking at this. It is the FAFSA EFC.</p>
<p>This looks about right, then.</p>
<p>
Does he work for the US gov’t? If so, that’s not how it works. Everyone pays taxes (see Mark Twain). Also, the maximum 401K contribution is $16.5K.</p>
<p>Please explain what you mean. Even U.S. government employees MUST pay income taxes on their earned income.</p>
<p>If your dad contributes pretax dollars to a retirement account, the FAFSA adds that back as income. Perhaps that is what that $20,000 is.</p>
<p>BTW, I just hasten to add that when I said “this looks about right, then” I was commenting on the EFC itself, which (at $10K-something) seemed in the ballpark for the AGI. The tax thing didn’t look right to me, either. OP: Do you have your dad’s final pay stub for 2011 and does it say 0 in the line item for federal income tax withheld?</p>
<p>My dad works for the government, so his income tax is 0</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>What gov’t does your dad work for? If he works for the US gov’then he has to pay taxes. If he works for a state gov’t, then he has to pay taxes.</p>
<p>The 401K limit is $22,000 if you are 50.</p>
<p>Not paying taxes aside (clearly not the US) any aid office will find it hard to believe a family of 5 is able to bank $20K/yr on a $52K income. </p>
<p>Either your family deserves a major award for your thriftiness, you live in a very low cost country, and/or other assets are involved. Schools are likely to figure out the puzzle.</p>
<p>^^ The $22k limit is with a one-time catch up.</p>
<p>please point me to something that says catch-up contributions are one-time only?? I am 100% sure that is not correct (until I read your post, of course). I just looked at irs.gov and don’t see it anywhere. I know someone in a payroll dept who says as long as you are 50 in that year, you can make the extra contributions.</p>
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<p>$52,800 being the AGI, I think, $52K is after the $20K contributions to retirement accounts. His gross would be somewhere over $70K.</p>
<p>jbourne, You are right about the catchup contribution.</p>
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<p>OP: Are you sure you are looking at the correct field? If your dad is filing 1040, you need to report the amount from line 61. Tax could be zero as well, considering standard deduction of $11,600 and 5 exemptions totaling to $18,500. If they also have tax credits, they may not owe any tax.</p>
<p>jbourne, you’re right. I misread it (or inferred it as one time).</p>
<p>With the numbers given it looks like they would get a $200 retirement savings tax credit besides the exemptions and standard deduction. People filing jointly with under $56,500 AGI should be aware of that credit for themselves.</p>