Question about two different EFC for 2 students

[amycoop1973]

@BelknapPoint

No. It was included in her adjusted gross income - the IRS data tool wouldn’t work so I had to manually type in the AGI, then when I tried to input the part of it that was the scholarship I got this error message: “You reported a total amount … that is high for the other income amounts reported”. I called the FAFSA help desk and they said to put in a zero on 43D.

If your student had taxable scholarship money that was included in AGI, that money needs to be reported in FAFSA question 43. d., where it is then backed out of the student’s income. The advice you got from the FAFSA help desk is wrong (surprise, surprise).

see, that’s what I keep thinking! But since I had the error message it wouldn’t let me enter it - that’s why I called fafsa in the first place. Then after getting the EFC I even called back and they confirmed that I should put zero on 43D. It just doesn’t make sense because that makes it seem like she is making that much per year in income. Is there any way to fix it? The FAFSA woman I talked to last night simply kept repeating the stock answer as to how EFC is calculated.