Pell Grant Eligibility

Paying for College
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<p>M2CK’s post above fails to address this concern. The OP is not complaining that her business expenses were added back in to reach her “true” income . . . she’s just trying to figure out how her cell phone & car expenses ended up being valued at $80,000!</p>

<p>I wasn’t including everything…There could be a host of other deductions that the OP took…Car lease/payments, gasoline, car insurance, a portion of home mortgage/rent, a portion of electricity/water/gas, depreciation of various things, hotels, restaurant, plane trips, etc. Business people can really stretch the meaning of a “business expense” when they want to…</p>

<p>My brother owns a rental in Paris, he can deduct at least one trip per year to Paris. Maybe two? </p>

<p>I have rental property. I can deduct a bunch of stuff, but I’m careful not to deduct things that are really personal expenses. </p>

<p>We didn’t apply for FA because we knew that we’d never qualify because of the rental values, rent income, H’s income, etc.</p>

<p>If I remember correctly (and I might not), I think CSS schools also add back in the “employer portion” of FICA for the self employed.</p>

<p>Also, I did address the fact that the OP’s H’s business took a loss. Well, Emory probably doesn’t see the business as a total loss. If he took depreciation, that was likely added back in.</p>

<p>Again, I don’t believe the family truly lived on $22k per year.</p>

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<p>“Again, I don’t believe the family truly lived on $22k per year.”</p>

<p>You’re saying I’m lying? That’s offensive. So is this statement:
“It actually would be offensive to taxpayers for you to get a Pell Grant.”</p>

<p>You may have chosen to ignore the fact that I’m a taxpayer too (not some mooch looking to game the system).</p>

<p>As I stated earlier, my income is very low this year (much lower than normal) which made me think I might qualify for more aid than in the past. I believe that’s a reasonable thing to think – a change in circumstance might cause a change in aid. As I also stated, we have assets --we have always saved – so in good years, we have a way to pay our bills when the bad years (like 2012) come around. And that’s how you live on $22K a year – you decrease your savings and you increase your debt (as we have done by tapping a home equity line).</p>

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<p>The OP stated clearly:

**So your assumption, M2CK, that

is utterly unwarranted, as is your statement that it is “offensive” for the OP’s son to receive a Pell grant.</p>

<p>Plenty of CC’ers are self-employed and, as a rule, we all bend over backwards to help them figure out how to qualify for financial aid, including you, if I recall correctly. That a low-income business owner would not be entitled to the same consideration strikes me as offensive.</p>

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<p>*The OP stated clearly:
Quote:
I do expense a car, gas, phone
So your assumption, M2CK, that
Quote:
There could be a host of other deductions that the OP took… a portion of home mortgage/rent, a portion of electricity/water/gas, depreciation of various things, hotels, restaurant, plane trips, etc.
is utterly unwarranted, as is your statement that it is “offensive” for the OP’s son to receive a Pell grant.</p>

<p>.*</p>

<p>Unwarranted? Ha! You stated that I had “failed to address” as to why Emory might think that the family’s income is higher. So, I provided other possible deductions or reasons. Jeez! lol </p>

<p>and, again, the OP stated that her H’s business had a loss. It’s not out of the imagination to believe that Emory didn’t consider some of his deductions are real losses…hence maybe some “income” was believed to be there.</p>

<p>And, I stand by my point that if a business owner is deducting a number of expenses fully that are partly personal and that brings the income down to Pell levels, then that is a problem. </p>

<p>The point I was making about not really living on $22k income is that you’re deducting things that get you to that point that regular folks aren’t deducting…car, gas, phone…so if you those back in (proportion that’s personal), the total number isn’t $22k. </p>

<p>As for being a “taxpayer too”, I’m curious what the federal tax owed would be on a family of 4 with an AGI of $22k? Unless I’m wrong, it’s either 0 or super low.</p>

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<p>Wow. Kick someone when they’re down, why don’t you?</p>

<p>As I stated before, this was an unusually bad year. I have had many years (not recently, but when I was salaried) where I paid a lot of money in income tax. But in your mind, if I have a bad year and low income, and didn’t pay as much income tax, that I don’t deserve Federal Aid? Wow. Just wow.</p>

<p>Thanks dodgersmom and other people who were helpful in answering my original question. I came to this forum for advice and I found it. I did not know before posting how the EFC was adjusted and now I know. </p>

<p>I’m going to call Emory tomorrow and ask some questions. They will probably not make any adjustments to the aid offer, but at least I can determine how they adjusted the EFC and if their adjustments are valid.</p>

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<p>Emory can do whatever it wants to determine your EFC for institutional purposes, but the FAFSA EFC is what determines eligibility for federal aid … including Pell. They must have made adjustments to basic FAFSA info. Ask about that to make sure it is correct. Often, business owners will get Pell but not institutional aid. You should be getting Pell if the FAFSA EFC is 0. Maybe you entered something incorrectly & Emory made the adjustment (as they must). They should be able to tell you what change(s) they made.</p>

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<p>I heard something recently but cant quite recall the specifics. Sybb- you are the guru at this-- maybe you can help. It had to do with , I believe, on the CSS- if self employed people owned real estate, that the real estate would be calculated as an asset, even if it was owned by the business. I was confused by whether it mattered if a person who was elf employed owned a bunch of rental property vs whether they had a business and owned the building in which the business was located. </p>

<p>I have no idea if this pertains to the OP’s issue, so apologies for what may be slightly off topic, but I did not understand this real estate distinction. I am pretty sure it was for the CSS and not the FAFSA, but not 100% sure. Can you help?</p>

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<p>I’m going to ask Emory to explain what adjustments they made to change the estimated EFC to the $5136 number.</p>

<p>jym626 – that’s an interesting question. We only own our home personally (not through the busines) and will be putting it on the market in the fall (S is a rising senior so we’ll have more tuition bills looming). But I’d be interested to know the answer if you find it.</p>

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<p>My guess would be that if the business owned the real estate it would be an asset of the business, which the profile probably would count, just like the real estate would count if the asset is owned by an individual.</p>

<p>I think the challenge is because each school determines how it is going to count an asset there will never be one set answer.</p>