Can someone please tell me what is included in an UNTAXED (edited, sorry) income field in a NPC? Contributions to a 401K, either employer or self? HSA contribution, employer or self? Anything else I’m missing? Looking shead, any difference between what FAFSA vs CSS will require? W2 has a D and a DD amount listed in Box 12.
Additionally, anyone know how rebates for electric vehicles are handled? Our 2022 taxes paid are down considerably because of a rebate. Will this work against us this year?
And how to determine house value? Or if we have 250-300K in equity, will it even matter if I miss-guess this?
Thanks!
Unearned income could be stock dividends, bond income. They should give you an explanation - what school? I can look.
Home equity - house value minus remaining mortgage. Look at homes around you that have recently sold for value.
Are you a parent ? A parent, not kids, should fill out the NPC in my opinion.
Parent here.
Sorry, meant to state UNTAXED income. So contributions to retirement account, D in Box 12 on W2 would need to be listed, as well as employee HSA contributions? Question is about employer contributions, I guess I include those too, wirst case scenario.
It should tell you which box on the 1040 to put in.
Employer contributions (a match)are not income. I would not include that.
What school?
@kelsmom am I correct in that contributions to tax deferred retirement accounts are no longer included on the FAFSA? Or do I have that wrong.
The Profile includes info that is not currently on the FAFSA. Primary home equity is NOT on the FAFSA at all, but it IS on the profile and is used in different ways depending on the college.
For divorced parents, the custodial parent only is included on the FAFSA. Many Profile schools want info from both parents.
The FAFSA no longer reduces the family contribution when multiple siblings are in college at the same time. Some Profile schools will consider multiple siblings and others might not…you need to check each school.
Depending on the college, net home equity could be assessed up to around 5% annually (in theory more, but that is the usual rate for fully assessable parental assets at CSS colleges). So a $50K miss would potentially throw off the NPC by up to $2500, but it could be less if they do not fully assess net home equity.
I personally think the most easily defensible estimate is one you pull from Zillow, Redfin, or similar. But if you have a decent reason to think they are overestimating, you can use your own comparables from recent sales in your market, or even pay for a professional estimate.
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I have consistently used the tax-assessed value for our home and had no issues. I’m told that some jurisdictions do not assess the entire value of the property and thus the tax valuation is not relevant for this purpose, so you’d want to check the property tax rules in your area.
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Any of the schools that use the CollegBoard linked NPC have this question regarding untaxed income.
Yes, I have filled in the proper boxes according to our 1040s for taxed income.
It’s just this one field in question. Looks like distributions from an HSA need to be included? But not the contributions? Not both certainly? Employer contributes 1.8 or 2K as part of an HDHP option. We fund up to the max beyond that.
From the NPC:
The answer to this question is the total of the following items made or received:
- Deductible retirement payments made (IRS Form 1040 Schedule 1, lines 16 and 20)
- Payments made to tax-deferred pension plans (Often found in W-2 form, Box 12; list any amounts preceded with any of the following letters: D, E, F, G, H, or S )
- Untaxed portions of IRA distributions or pensions, excluding “rollovers” received (IRS Form 1040, lines 4a minus 4b, and 5a minus 5b)
- Tax-exempt interest income received (IRS Form 1040, line 2a)
- Health savings account (HSA) deduction (IRS Form 1040 Schedule 1, line 13)
- Housing, food, and other living allowances received, including on-base housing or basic military housing allowances
- Veterans non-education benefits such as Disability, Death pension, or DIC and VA Educational Work-Study allowances
- All other untaxed income not reported elsewhere in this calculator
I assume you mean the last line since the previous gives you an IRS line formula.
Perhaps it’s money you’ve taken out of an HSA. You might call a school’s aid office an ask.
You don’t want a nasty surprise later.
Good luck.
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Contributions to retirement accounts and any other untaxed income are no longer reported in the FAFSA. They are reported for CSS, though. This is a good link: https://www.road2college.com/guide-to-filling-out-css-profile/. This video may be helpful: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6i4rfQBxRHA.
Hmmm…current tax assessed full value is 484K and the zillow map say 861K, so I’m not sure I can jusify that? And I’m absolutely sure that i couldnt sell my house for that Zillow number. I had been plugging a number into NPCs that is almost exactly between those two.
Ooh, thanks, I’ll check that out. I’ve filled out both before, but several years back.
My son’s school only ever required a CSS form that first year, then just FAFSA there after, which made me very happy. Do you know if this is common?
Yes, I think the estimate is way high. But I’m loath to pay a professional for a number. I had a phone call last year, from an agent interested in buying and I’m kicking myself for not asking for a number. But the market has dropped a good bit since then.
Thanks, it’s been a few years. I knew the sibling thing has changed but that won’t affect us.
I am aware that some schools do this. I’m not sure which ones, though. You can ask the school.
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You can try doing three recent comps you think are fair.
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I don’t know if this is common but it was the same for our kids’ colleges.
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I would need a real estate agent. Zillow does not list sales prices in my state. It’s super annoying
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County records? We have an online county database where you can poke around and find recent sales in your area.