<p>Ldinct: It does sound like you need to have that talk with the scholarship on the line. Some kids find that they can get better grades by taking fewer credits. Maybe it’s a good idea for him to drop to 12 credits since he came in with a lot of credit. Good luck.</p>
<p>Proudmom: I’ll keep my fingers crossed for your D to get good news tomorrow.</p>
<p>Fortunately, my H handles our taxes. His father was a CPA and I think it’s in his blood. He’s a big fan of turbotax.</p>
<p>Thanks, BI - for the kind words and for letting me know I’m not going to be the very last to the FAFSA table!</p>
<p>You’ve been busy the past day or two! Sorry to hear of all the sorority disappointments. 
</p>
<p>Fogfog, so sorry to hear about your mom :’-(</p>
<p>proudmom – I haven’t done taxes and FAFSA/Profile yet. With my DH self-employed, it’s better to wait until mid-to-late February to make sure we have all the 1099s in (even though he keeps his own records, I like to make sure everything lines up). I rushed it last year, of course, but this year our deadlines are not until late April, so I can relax. One thing I wonder – there is always something that prevents us from e-filing, and I am wondering if that will prevent us from using the “import from IRS” feature on the FAFSA or if that will be available, once my paper return has been processed.</p>
<p>I haven’t filed my FAFSA or taxes yet either. Last year I filed my FAFSA week one in January b/c I wanted to know what kind of FA we could or could not expect from each school. Given that this is our first year with all the tuition stuff and (fortunately) my son has lots of scholarships, I’m in for a big learning curve. DH also started collecting SS. At least we don’t have to do the Profile.</p>
<p>We (DH) hasn’t started out taxes yet. Just got to 1098 from boychild’s school on Monday. He says he might do them this weekend. FAFSA/CSS isn’t due until end of June but planning on getting it done once our taxes are finished. Won’t be much different than last yr except DH’s salary went down (thank you NY State!) even though his big promotion went through. Supposedly his raise should be going through soon but I’m not holding my breath.</p>
<p>I just had to pop back in with an update. Just heard from D1 again and she just now received the email inviting her to interview day! I guess the woman who was out sick just sent the emails out tonight. She still has to actually be selected but at least she’s on to that phase. Thanks again to all of you for your support!</p>
<p>Good luck to proudmomof2’s D in the next phase! YAY!</p>
<p>It will be awhile before we do our taxes. H received an inheritance from his uncle this past year in the form of bieng a life insurance beneficiary. We received the 1099 last week listing it as taxable income when it was really a death payout. The attorney and company were both called and now we wait for a corrected 1099 showing it as a non taxable death payout.</p>
<p>I love TurboTax. Have used it for many years for the personal return. I have a CPA who does the business and he has reviewed the personal Turbo results and says they are fine. I use it for DS’s small return as well. We have until the end of March to get the FAFSA and CSS forms into the school for our review for next year. I assume that they allocate the same amount in their budget for the next year for each of the returning classes and do final adjustments as most situations and incomes are fairly static. Its the new freshmen that take all of their time as they have to perform the intial review and FA calculations.</p>
<p>February 1st - Only 790 days until DD’s class of 2014 sets sail on the SS Indecision! :D</p>
<p>proudmom that is wonderful!</p>
<p>ldinct sorry to hear about the issues with your son.</p>
<p>I don’t do the taxes. I am almost embarrassed when someone asks me a tax question these days-it has been years since I have prepared a return-my husband handles all of it. If I had to I could get up to speed pretty quickly-but fortunately I don’t need to right now. My husband did tell me we received something from the school that we could use to claim a credit but it isn’t a credit we are entitled to-he thinks the school made an error that could work in our favor. He is going to call them and tell them about it-I would just claim the credit! Isn’t that awful of me? I hope he is wrong and the form is right though-I can’t imagine a big school would make that kind of error-but if he is right can you imagine all the corrected forms they’ll have to send out! :)</p>
<p>He is going to fill out the FAFSA even though we don’t get any FA-but the CSS Profile is a thing of the past! </p>
<p>My husband also loves Turbotax.</p>
<p>We got the form from the school. It lists in box 2 tuition for the entire year, but in the scholarship box it list only the scholarship he received the 1st semester. Shouldn’t box 2 have only listed the amount paid 1st semester? I will call the bursars office and check with our acct, but thought someone here might know.</p>
<p>mamom, calling the bursar’s office is best. Did you not pay any of the 2nd semester expenses before the first of the year? </p>
<p>We had already paid most (but not all) of the 2nd semester expenses before the end of 2011. We are on a payment plan and 2nd semester expenses had to be paid by January 31, so we had paid all but $1000 of the 2nd semester expenses before it even started. So, what we paid during 2011 would be in that box, even if it was for 2012 expenses.</p>
<p>I definitely recommend everyone reading Publication 970 from the IRS website to learn about the college - related tax issues. The IRS is also very helpful.</p>
<p>Saw an interesting movie last night - Control with Willem Defoe and Ray Liotta. Lots of moral issues to discuss, a bit gory, foul language.</p>
<p>Do you even bother to fill out FAFSA when you don’t get finacial aid? I am trying to figure out if we really need to bother. We don’t get any aid and we will not be taking the unsubsidized government loan.</p>
<p>momof3greatgirls,</p>
<p>I don’t know how true it is, though I have heard it is good to fill out the fafsa every year, even if you won’t qualify. The reasoning is that it is then filled out just in case anything has changed, either your income or the financial aid rules. Even if nothing has changed at this point in time, maybe it will in July (a lost job or something) and then you have already given the FAFSA info on time and can go adjust it as needed.</p>
<p>flmathmom</p>
<p>Glad you posted the publication because I didn’t realize the American Opportunity credit had a phase out after 160K. Does anyone know the amount for 2011 tax year. Is it the same amount for 2011 as 2010 or did they increase the amount you can earn?</p>
<p>My husband does our taxes via turbotax too. I picked it up last weekend on sale at BJ’s and am hoping to be out of the house whatever weekend he works on it. He gets really grumpy and always gets on my case about any donations I give or if he can’t find something. We have until April 1 to do the FAFSA. We don’t get any finaid, but son does get merit aid and I think they require the FAFSA to re-evaluate possible need based aid. Who knows? He’s been filling out that form for years and years, now he just does it. My son does take out an unsubsidized loan, so maybe we need it for that.</p>
<p>According to Punxsutawney Phil, our famous PA groundhog, we’re in for 6 more weeks of winter. I think he may be right as we’re now having a strange winter with unusually warm weather so the real winter has got to start up again soon. Since this has happened before, I think they should come up with a term for it, like Indian summer in the fall. Caribbean Winter?</p>
<p>FlMathMom and others – I’m trying to find Publication 970, but the version on the IRS website, when you open the HTML or PDF links, says “for 2010.” Is there one out yet for 2011?</p>
<p>Sorry to hear all the bad news about the sorority rushes. Hugs to everyone out there with disappointments. The kids will go through these rough patches and it’s hard not being there to resolve these issues for them!</p>
<p>Fogfog - thinking and praying for your mom.</p>
<p>D is having a rough time too - the past few days. Has been very down - apparently sports practice is not going too well. She feels like she’s being picked on by the coach and is really disheartened. Have been through this with her all through high school and frankly, I’ve had enough of this. Told her to put things into perspective and keep sports secondary to the academics. But left feeling guilty - am I being too harsh ??</p>
<p>I do have some good news, although it is for my 8th grade S. He got into the one private school he applied near us - has to make a decision within the next couple of weeks. He also got into a boarding school thousands of miles away and is a semi finalist for their full tuition scholarship! You should have seen the joy on his face when he read that letter!! This is a great confidence booster for him and I love that…but the mom in me doesn’t really want him going away to boarding school at this point. I want four more years with him at home Being selfish, I know…we won’t know the final results for a few weeks.</p>
<p>I do the taxes at home and love Turbo Tax! It only takes a couple of hours, if you have all the documentation gathered together. Have to read up on publication 970 though. While on this topic, H worked for a consultant type company last year and they sent him four different W2s - each with a different state tax. I guess we have to file returns for each of those states? Anyone know if there’s a software out there that lets us do multiple states without charging 20$ per state like Turbo Tax does? What a pain…</p>
<p>arisamp - Sorry that your D is blue…sports can be a huge roller coaster ride…and congratulations on your soon’s acceptances. I don’t think you are selfish re: boarding school. I personally think that teens need to be around their parents during the formative years. JMO…</p>