Upload Tax Return Data to FAFSA

[patsmom]

<p>Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about how to upload your 2010 tax return info directly into the FAFSA application. Pretty neat if it works!</p>

<p>[Upload</a> Data To Aid Form - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704653204576112502364649370.html?KEYWORDS=fafsa]Upload”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704653204576112502364649370.html?KEYWORDS=fafsa)</p>

<p>

College-application season is under way. And starting today, filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or Fafsa, has gotten a bit simpler.</p>

<p>Families can now transfer tax records from the Internal Revenue Service to their Fafsa form online. The Fafsa is used to apply for federal school aid. But states and schools also use the application to award loans, scholarships and grants.</p>

<p>To upload the IRS data, go to the “Parent Financial Information” section on the Fafsa website (fafsa.gov) and click on “View and Transfer Your 2010 Tax Information From the IRS.” Then plug in personal identifiers, such as your Social Security number and tax-filing status, and your 2010 tax information will be uploaded to the application, says Chris Greene, a spokesman at the U.S. Department of Federal Student Aid.</p>

<p>The tool only works for 2010 returns. You can access the data on the tool about two weeks after getting IRS confirmation that your return was received. People who must wait till about Feb. 14 to file returns because of delays resulting from the new tax law won’t have access to the data till later that month. Data from previous tax years must be input manually.</p>

<p>There is no federal deadline for submitting the Fafsa. But deadlines for schools and states vary. Connecticut’s deadline is Feb. 15; Florida’s is May 15; California’s initial awards deadline is March 2.

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[thumper1]

<p>That’s great…but remember too…the deadline dates for different SCHOOLS is not the same as the “state deadlines” on the FAFSA website. Just an FYI.</p>

<p>Of course this ALL happens when <em>I</em> no longer have to complete a FAFSA!!!</p>

[memama]

<p>I expect now that this is available it is here to stay. Seems like it will be very convenient for returning students who do not have such early deadlines for filing the forms as incoming freshmen do.</p>