Reporting under-the-table income?

Keilinger
Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:44:38 +0000

I’ve worked a part-time job for below minimum wage since 2006. My boss is a family friend who owns a small business and the work was very flexible in the earlier years and so I’d work once a month. This past 6 months, I worked approx 5-6 hours/wk, still receiving cash payments under the table.

The problem is that my application for admission reports that I work 6 hrs/wk, but I don’t feel comfortable reporting the untaxed income on my financial aid forms. If the admissions committee and the financial aid office communicate regularly with each other, it would look fishy that I haven’t earned as much as I should have in 4 years’ time, because I’ve only started working regularly in June. I also don’t want to land my boss in hot water. Can I leave it off entirely, and claim it as immaterial?

I should also mention that I didn’t report it on the CSS profile.