Home | Federal Student Aid - Financial Aid Toolkit
PSC-ED-FSA-TISD
Moderator: Christal Simms
August 22, 2017
2:00 pm CT
Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by.
At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode.
This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this point.
Now I will turn the meeting over into your host, Ms. (Kim Welsh).
You may begin.
(Kim Welsh): Thank you and good afternoon, everybody. My name is (Kim Welsh) and I will be presenting today along with my colleague, Misty Parkinson, and we’re going to be talking with you about the 2018-19 updates to the FAFSA form.
A couple of things before we get started. First, primarily, located in the upper left-hand corner of your screen we do have the PowerPoint available for you to download. You should see it under the box that’s called “Files” and you can click on it and download the file there.
Another thing is that, if you have questions, you can ask those during the presentation in the Q&A chat area and we have FSA staff that are available that will be answering those questions throughout the Webinar.
And then finally, Misty and I will be addressing some questions at the end of the Webinar as well. So we’ll have some time for that at the end.
So I’m going to go ahead and get started. And this is what we’re going to talk about this afternoon. We’re first going to talk about some enhancements that are not related to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool changes and I will be covering those. I’m then going to turn it over to Misty and she’s going to talk about the IRS Data Retrieval Tool changes and then we’ll have plenty of time at the end for any kind of questions and/or comments.
So these are changes that I’m going to talk about related to the 2018-19 FAFSA form and these are going to be happening at Startup. Startup happens on October 1st of 2017, so just a little over a month away, and these are all things that you’re going to see related to the FAFSA changes for 2018-19 starting on October 1st.
I’m going to cover changes that are not related to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool and the first of these changes is that the federal government is concerned that any kind of publicly accessible Web sites that are federally related they don’t have the strongest privacy and integrity protection available for those connections. So what that means basically is we are going to be changing the URL for the Web site. So any FSA Web site that has either an HTTP or a WWW prefix will have an HTTPS prefix. There are several FSA Web sites that already have made this change. On October 1st, the FAFSA will be making this change as well. So instead of , you’ll want to type in HTTPS with the colon and then the two slashes and then .
And so we will be continuing to redirect folks until the end of the calendar year, so until December 31st. But I definitely encourage you if you have the FAFSA Web site bookmark anywhere on any of your computers or other devices that you would want to go ahead and make that change now to the HTTPS.
Another thing that we’re going to be changing related to the connections are the acceptable browsers. And so you’ll want to make sure that you’re using either Internet Explorer Version 11 or higher or - and/or the latest version of Chrome. Those are the browsers that we’ll be supporting. We also support Firefox but you’ll want to make sure that you have the latest version of those browsers so that you’re not blocked from accessing the FAFSA site.
And these changes in combination they present a higher level of security for those folks who are filling out the FAFSA.
Another change that we’ll be making starting October 1st is that we are adding what we call a banner disclaimer. So we have found that it can be challenging for the Department of Education to track and produce any kind of sufficient evidence to prosecute those folks who use the FAFSA for unauthorized purposes where they’re seeking to benefit either from commercial or private financial gain. So these are folks who are using the FAFSA for purposes other than it was originally intended.
And so what we will be doing is we are adding a banner disclaimer page that gets presented to applicants and parents once the user has provided either their FSA ID information or they have provided the student’s information for which to log on with. So after they’ve done that, then there will be a banner disclaimer page that indicates that the Department of Education can monitor the FAFSA for criminal activity that the users can send to that monitoring and that any kind of unauthorized use of the FAFSA for commercial or private financial gain is subject to criminal prosecution. Users will then have the opportunity to either accept that banner disclaimer or not. If they choose “Accept,” then they’ll move forward in the FAFSA process. If they choose to not accept that, then they won’t be able to complete the FAFSA.
This does provide a higher level of security for users and it also helps when the Department of Education Office of Inspector General and prosecutors want to choose to pursue criminal charges against those folks who use the FAFSA form for purposes for which it is not intended.
So one of the changes that you’ll see related to the FAFSA is the question related to parent marital status. And this question is Question 59 on the FAFSA form. And what we found is that parents have difficulty in answering this question correctly. And what the question currently says is as of today, what is the marital status of your legal parents, biological and/or adoptive? And what we know is that the term “legal” only applies to those parents who are unmarried and both parents living together. So we’ve removed the term “legal” from the question itself and we’re placing it in the dropdown box with the term for which it applies.
So beginning with the 2018-19 FAFSA, this question will read, “As of today, what is the marital status of your parents, biological and/or adoptive?” And then of the dropdown choices, the one where the word “legal” applies would read “unmarried” and “both legal parents living together.” So that would be the option where legal applies. And so we’ve changed that question to reflect that accordingly.
Another question that you’ll see - and then they’re different, excuse me, that you’ll see beginning in October is the change to Questions 56, 57 and 58. These are the questions that deal with homeless youth. And what we’re - what we know is that there are applicants who are age 22 or 23 who indicated on their FAFSA that they are homeless. And in order for them to be an independent student and to be considered homeless and - be considered an independent, excuse me, those applicants have to rely on a financial aid administrator to set a homeless youth override flag in order for them to complete the FAFSA as an independent student.
So it means that those students would - currently, those students would answer the question. They would not automatically be considered an independent student. They would have to go to the financial aid administrator. The financial aid administrator would set a flag. And then the application could be processed for that student as an independent student.
Beginning with the 2018-19 year, that will be different. So the logic for those questions related to homeless youth will be modified. So those questions will display to all applicants who indicate that they are homeless. And so that’s going to allow those applicants who are age 22 or 23 to indicate if they’ve received a homeless determination either by school district liaison or some other entity that would make that student an independent student from the very beginning.
So in other words, this means that those students who are age 22 or 23 who indicate that they are a homeless youth on their FAFSA can then be presented with those additional questions that they would answer indicating who had provided them with that determination and they can be considered an independent student from the very beginning rather than having to go to the financial aid administrator to get that flag set by the financial aid administrator. So they’ll be able to do that from the very beginning rather than having to go that extra step.
An additional change that you’ll see to the FAFSA questions relate to Questions 44d and 93d. And these questions relate to - it’s the same basic question, just 44 - one for the parent, one is for the student. And these questions relate to the amount of taxable college grant and scholarship aid that’s reported to the IRS. And what we’re finding here is that applicants and parents are misreporting the scholarship and grant aid that they are supposed to report in those two questions.
So the question currently reads “Student college grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS and your adjusted gross income” or in your father’s or mother’s or parent’s, depending on the logic of which parent is being reported or if both parents are being reported or if it’s the student question.
So the difference is that the question will be changed to read “Taxable college grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS as income.” And there’s some additional information after that. But that’s the changes reported to the IRS as income. And that’s because we’re finding that some applicants and parents continue to report - misreport the scholarship and grant aid even though it wasn’t included in their adjusted gross income or they report their full amount of their adjusted gross income. So hopefully, with this change in language, it’ll be more clear what applicants and parents should be reporting in that particular question.
So that was Question 44d, Question 93d is the question for parents. So it’s the same statement. It would just say your parent’s taxable college grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS as income.
And the last change that I’m going to be talking about before I turn it over to Misty is that we are reorganizing our help page. So we have heard from quite a few parents that they have a hard time finding answers to questions on the FAFSA from their perspective and from their point of view. And so what we’re doing is we are featuring and we will be featuring beginning in October the help page will now have a separate parent section. So there will be a parent section specifically designed to answer questions that parents have. The questions are still related to the FAFSA form but it will be specifically from the parent’s perspective and the parent’s point of view.
And so we’re hoping that along with rephrasing some of the questions that this change is having a separate section for parents to help answer questions about the FAFSA from their point of view will be - make for a better user experience for our parents as they’re completing the FAFSA both with and separate from their student applicants.
And I am going to turn the Webinar over now to Misty. She’s going to talk about some changes that are related to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.
Misty Parkinson: Thank you, (Kim).
Good afternoon, everybody. As (Kim) said, I’m going to focus specifically on the changes related to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool for 2018-2019.
Many of you are aware that in around March, the 2016-17 and 2017-18 versions of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool were taken offline and there was some information that was shared publicly about why that was done and then also information to let everybody know that we will not be reinstating the IRS Data Retrieval Tool for 2017-2018. We spent quite a bit of time creating a solution for 2018-2019 that addresses the concerns that have been raised related to privacy and security concerns. And so I’m going to describe what those changes are and how the user experience is impacted on the online FAFSA.
So the criteria for being eligible to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool will be pretty much the same as in the past. So based on answers to certain FAFSA questions, we present the student or the parent, as applicable, with the option to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.
If the student or parent chooses to use it, they will be taken over to the IRS Web site and they will be required to authenticate the same way they have in the past. So basically, they have to provide their Social Security number, name, date of birth, the address on the tax return and the tax filing status. All of that information has to match what was on the tax return that was filed for the year in which we’re collecting the information. So for the 2018-19 FAFSA, that would be for the 2016 tax return.
If the user successfully authenticates, they’re taken over to a page on the IRS side which previously listed out the different data elements that could be transferred into the FAFSA, including the actual answers to the questions. So for example, adjusted gross income, taxes paid, exemptions, et cetera, et cetera. The page that was viewed along the IRS side would list out those data fields and then also provide the answer as it was reported on the tax return.
So in an effort to increase privacy for our taxpayers, that page will look different. It will list out the data elements that could potentially be transferred by name, adjusted gross income, taxes paid, exemptions, et cetera, but it will not include the actual amount that was reported on the tax return.
The user will be notified that the information is being hidden from their view on the IRS side and that if they choose to transfer that information into FAFSA, it will also be hidden from their view on the FAFSA. There will still be the option to transfer the data. There will also be the option to not transfer the data and return to the FAFSA. And if the user chooses to transfer the data, they will be taken back into the FAFSA.
And for all of the FAFSA questions that has been answered with the information from the IRS tax return, there will be instead of an entry box that has been populated with the answer. Instead, there will be text that says “Transferred from the IRS.”
So the user will not be able to see the answers to the questions. Because they can’t see the answers to the questions, they also can’t change any of the data that’s been transferred. Although we don’t expect that there is a need, generally speaking, to change the data because the FAFSA is asking for the information as it was reported on the tax return instance that’s transferring over, then the answers to the question should be correct. There should be no need to make changes with a few exceptions and I’m going to cover what those are because as a result of this change to the user experience, we did have to make some other changes to how the overall FAFSA process works.
The first change I’m going to talk about is related to the pension and IRA rollover amount. We have questions on the FAFSA that ask for the total amount of pension and IRA amounts reported. And we specifically say to subtract any amount that was a rollover. If you can’t see the answer to the question and you can’t change the answer to the question, you can’t follow the instructions to subtract the rollover amount. So what we’ve done is we’ve added two additional questions to the FAFSA. If you transfer back a non-zero amount for one of those questions - over either of those questions from the IRS, then we will ask a new question which is, did you have a rollover? And if you answer yes, then we’ll display a new field where you can enter the amount of the rollover. And then behind the scenes, we will do the path for you. We’ll take the amount that you transferred and we’ll subtract the amount that you reported for the rollover. That’s the amount that will be used in the calculation to determine the estimated family contribution.
Another area where we needed to make a change was related to the income earned from work. There’s a challenge that we’ve always had with income earned from work reporting for people who file a joint tax return. The IRS tax return collects the total income for both spouses. It’s not broken down on the tax return based on who earned what. On the FAFSA, it is broken down, student, spouse, you know, or Parent 1 and Parent 2. We can’t make any assumptions about who earned, you know, what amount. So for somebody who did not file a joint tax return, we actually populate the Income Earned From Work field for the student or for the parent based on information from the tax return. But if it’s a joint filer, what we used to do was transfer over the total amount, display it in a View Only box and then allow the student or parent to manually enter the amounts for the two different - for the two spouses but at least they had a number to work towards.
So for example, you know, if I filed a joint tax return and I transferred over an income earned from work total of $50,000 and I know my income earned from work was $30,000, I could type “30,000” for my income earned from work and then the system would automatically populate my spouse’s as 20,000. That’s not going to happen anymore because we will not be displaying any amounts that came from the IRS, and therefore, there’s no dollar amount to work towards.
So for those people who filed - tax return, they will report their income earned from work the same way as someone who didn’t use the IRS DRT at all. So everything else, the AGI, taxes paid, exemptions and those other fields will transfer from the IRS but the income earned from work will not for those people who filed a joint tax return.
Another change that we had to make is related to edit. We have a number of edits that are run against the data that’s reported on the FAFSA where we are comparing different fields to determine whether they appear to be logical, you know, if we believe that there’s a possibility that some question was answered incorrectly, we will pop up an edit and allow the user to either confirm that the information is correct or change the answer so that, you know, we’re collecting more accurate information to determine eligibility.
However, again, because we will not be displaying information that’s transferred from the IRS, if there is an edit that includes information that’s transferred from the IRS, we will not be displaying the edits because it can’t be resolved. The user can’t confirm the information is correct if they can’t see all of it nor can they correct anything that was transferred from the IRS because those fields are just text now. They’re not entry boxes where something can be typed in.
So if a user encounters one of these edits, they can’t see them and resolve them online. So instead, once the information is processed and the Student Aid Report is generated, there will be a comment that will display on the Student Aid Report alerting the students that there was some information reported either for the student or the parent that might require some follow-up with the financial aid office in order to resolve.
And then the last thing is just corrections in general. As I said, because the user will not be able to see the information that’s transferred from the IRS, if the student or parent believes that it is necessary to correct anything that’s transferred from the IRS, then they will have to go to the financial aid office and discuss those corrections that they believe need to be made with their financial aid administrator. And if the financial aid administrator agrees that a change is necessary, then the financial aid administrator would make the change on behalf of the student.
So that’s the general description of how the user experience is going to work. I do just want to point out that although the information transferred from the IRS is hidden from view online and it’s also hidden from view on the Student Aid Report, the actual amounts are transferred into our system so that we can properly calculate a student’s eligibility and the information will continue to be shared with schools and state grant agencies so that they can also continue to award any state aid or institutional aid.
All right. Another change we’re making related to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool is to increase the population of people that are actually eligible to use the tool. So in prior years, we asked the question on the FAFSA, did you file an amended tax return? This was a question that we actually found people were answering incorrectly quite often. We reworded the question pretty much every year that it was out there and we just never reach a point where we were asking it in such a way that people were answering it correctly.
Based on our data, we believe that a not insignificant number of people were answering yes when they should have answered no. But because they answered yes, we were not allowing them to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool which is the most accurate way to answer the questions on the FAFSA. So we took a look at what we might be able to do to improve that for our users.
So what was decided to do is remove those questions from the FAFSA and instead let these people use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool and then the IRS will indicate whether there is an amended tax return on file.
So when the user transfers the information from the IRS back into the FAFSA, not only are they answering some of the FAFSA questions with the information on their original tax return, they’re also receiving an indication from the IRS which gets passed to the school that says that there is an amended return on file. And this alerts the financial aid administrator that the information that is reported in those fields on the FAFSA might have to be updated because depending on the reason for the amended return, for example, you know, if I filed my tax return and then I realized that, you know, I have worked three jobs but I only reported income from two jobs and so I had to, you know, add my W2 information from the third job and file an amended return that would impact my adjusted gross income and some other data elements on the tax return and that would impact the answers to the questions on the FAFSA. So letting the financial aid administrator know that there’s an amended return on file, the financial aid administrator can follow up with that student and make sure that the questions are answered properly.
So as I said, the information is passed back for the benefit of the financial aid administrator but it’s also used to message to the student or parent when they get back into the FAFSA and received the message that says that their data transferred from the IRS successfully, there will also be a message letting them know that the IRS indicated that they filed an amended return and they will have to work with their financial aid administrator in order to make sure that all of the questions have been answered properly.
So those are the updates related to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. So that ends my parts of the presentation. So at this point, I think we’re going to start responding to some of the questions.
(Kim Welsh): We are. And I will be happy to take the first one. Someone asked if I could repeat the acceptable browsers. I will apologize in advance. I don’t know off the top of my head all of the acceptable browsers. I just - I know that we will be accepting Internet Explorer 11 and higher and whatever the latest version of Google Chrome is. I apologize. So those are the two that I mentioned specifically.
I’ll go ahead and do another one. I’ve got one here that says, did (Kim) state that if a student is less than 22 and is homeless they will receive a flag on their FAFSA and will have to speak with the FAA? And that is not - if I said that, that is not what I meant to say. What’s going to happen is if a student is - basically for home - the homeless youth question is what’s going to happen now is everyone, regardless of age, will be treated the same. Meaning that, if they indicate in the dependency status area, if they indicate that they are a homeless youth or at risk of - a user who’s at risk of being homeless, then basically they’re all going to be - they would answer yes to that question. They’ll be prompted with the other filtering questions that ask who was that provided that determination and if they answer yes to one of those questions, those additional questions, then regardless of age, the student would be determined an independent student and could move forward throughout their process as an independent student from the very beginning.
So if they’ve been determined to be homeless, for example, by their school district liaison and they answer yes to that question, even if they’re 22, then they would still get that independent determination and move forward as such throughout the FAFSA from the very beginning. The same thing would happen if, for example, it was a 19-year-old student. If they answered yes that they were a use - homeless youth or at risk of being homeless, they answer yes to that and they also answered yes to that additional question about the school district liaison providing that determination, then they would also be determined to be independent and would move forward as such throughout the FAFSA process from the very beginning. So they wouldn’t have to go to their financial aid administrator. So it allows for everyone who is under the age of 24 to be treated the same on the FAFSA form from the very beginning for the homeless youth determination questions.
Misty Parkinson: Thanks for jumping in and taking two questions in a row, (Kim). I was having some slight technical difficulties…
(Kim Welsh): Yes, I figured you probably were, so…
Misty Parkinson: Thank you. So we have a question, will students be able to see the data that was transferred from the IRS to the FAFSA on the Student Aid Report once processed? And the answer to that question is no. If the student or parent chooses to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to transfer data back into the FAFSA, they will never be able to see that information, not when they bring it back into the application, not on the Student Aid Report, not if they return to the FAFSA in order to make the corrections. So for privacy reasons, we will be hiding that information no matter how the student or parent is viewing the FAFSA data.
(Kim Welsh): And that was quite a popular question, Misty, because I - you just answered three of my questions by answering your question. So thank you.
I’ve got a question here that says, so if any corrections need to be made, students and parents will have to go to the financial aid office of each school to get edits? And the answer to that question is not necessarily. So we want to be really clear that the only time that any kind of information will be hidden from view or masked would be if the applicant or parent has used the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, has transferred their data from the IRS into their FAFSA form, that would be the only time that that information would not be visible to the applicant or parent.
So in those situations, then yes, if corrections need to be made to information that has been transferred from the IRS, then the applicant would need to work with their financial aid administrator at the school where they’ll be attending to get those corrections made. But if someone has not ever used IRS Data Retrieval Tool or decided not to transfer their data in or even if they have used IRS Data Retrieval Tool and they need to make corrections to any information that was not retrieved from the IRS, they’ll still be able to make those corrections accordingly. They’re not going to have to work with their financial aid administrator necessarily to get those corrections made. So hopefully that helped to answer that question and makes it a little bit more clear when it is that they would need to work with their financial aid administrator.
Related to the edits part, that’s where Misty was talking about there are some edits that folks would have been presented with on the FAFSA - the online FAFSA where they would have been able to resolve those edits online but because they can’t see the information that was transferred from the IRS, then they’re not going to be able to resolve those specific edits online. So in those circumstances, we’ll be providing a comment on the Student Aid Report that directs the student, the applicant or parent, as appropriate, to the financial aid administrator for help in resolving those edits. So in that specific unique circumstance as well, then yes, the applicant or parent would have to work with their financial aid administrator to get those edits resolved.
Misty Parkinson: Thanks, (Kim). The next question that I’m going to answer is, could you please repeat how EFC will be determined differently now? I just want to clarify that there is no change to how the EFC is being calculated. What I was trying to explain is that in order to calculate the EFC, we have to have the actual answers to those FAFSA questions. So while the answers are being hidden from view from any of the student’s views, whether it’s online or on the Student Aid Report, the actual answers do have to be captured by our central processing system which does the EFC calculation and the answers are also going to continue to be shared with schools and states so that they can calculate eligibility for states and institutional aid. So the EFC calculation is not going to change and the information that’s used in the EFC calculation will continue to exist. It’s just being able to view all that data. The student and parent will not be able to if they transferred the information from the IRS.
(Kim Welsh): Okay. Thanks, Misty. I’ve got a question here that is, what is the comment code to identify that the filer submitted an amended tax return as determined by the IRS?
And there is no comment code that would identify that they have submitted an amended tax return that the IRS has determined that tax filer has submitted an amended tax return. If there will be a code on the ISIR, which is the Institutional Student Information Report, that gets sent to schools, so they will have a special code that indicates that an amended return was on file but there is no comment code that would be on the Student Aid Report that would indicate that the IRS has determined that there was an amended tax return on file.
Misty Parkinson: Okay. And I’m going to respond to the question, can colleges share with families what numbers were transferred from the IRS? Federal Student Aid is currently working on an electronic announcement that will be posted to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals Web site as well as to the Financial Aid Toolkit Web site that will be providing specific guidance about that. I can’t specifically answer the question because I haven’t even seen a draft yet of that electronic announcement but I know that it’s in the works and there will be guidance that will be shared that impacts both schools and state grant agencies.
(Kim Welsh): Great. Thanks, Misty. I’ve had a question here that reads, since married filing jointly will not pull in individual income earned from work, will it be required to manually enter in on the FAFSA or will just the joint information and AGI be enough?
So if the tax filers are married filing jointly, then they would want to - they would need to put in their income earned from work manually individually. So they have to do it manually. So each tax filer then you’d want to separate out the income earned from work manually for joint tax filers and you would want to make sure that that is done appropriately for each individual.
Misty Parkinson: And the next question that I’ll be responding to is, will manually entered tax information appear on the Student Aid Report? And think (Kim) already answered another version of this question. It’s only if somebody uses the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to transfer their tax information that we will be hiding information from the student’s view. So anything that is manually entered will still be visible on the Student Aid Report.
(Kim Welsh): Great. Thanks, Misty. I just got that question as well. So that takes care of that one for me.
I got a question that asks, will the FAFSA tell you which browsers work? And it’s - I’m not sure actually. Misty, in our help text, do we indicate which browsers we support? That’s one I don’t know the answer to. I apologize.
Misty Parkinson: That’s okay. Yes. We do have a help topic that will provide information about the supported browsers. But you’ll know if you try to access the FAFSA Web site and we are not supporting the browser that you’re using, then you will get a message that tells you that you need to upgrade your browser and provide the information about where to go to do that.
(Kim Welsh): Yes. So it’s almost kind of opposite, right? So you’ll know because your browser won’t work. You won’t be able to get to the FAFSA site.
Misty Parkinson: Right.
(Kim Welsh): Thanks for that, Misty. I appreciate it.
Misty Parkinson: You’re welcome.
(Kim Welsh): Since you kind of helped me answer that one, I’ll take this next question which is, will the enhanced IRS DRT be in placed on October 1st for users or will it be available October 2018?
So the Data Retrieval Tool will be coming back, if you will, for lack of better terminology, beginning with the 2018-19 FAFSA cycle which starts October 1st of 2017. But just to be clear, and I believe Misty mentioned this earlier, the Data Retrieval Tool will not be coming back for the 2017-18 FAFSA cycle, only for its 2018-19 and forward. So that starts on October 1st of this year but only for the 2018-19 application cycle.
Misty Parkinson: All right. I’m going to take two questions. The first is in response to a question we’ve gotten repeatedly which is about this particular Webinar and whether it will be available on the toolkit for later viewing and the answer to that question is yes.
The next question that I’m going to take is, if a parent has now become divorced since the 2016 tax return was filed, how does the IRS tool adjusting for the custodial parent only get reflected?
I just want to reiterate that the criteria for being eligible to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool hasn’t changed with the exception of us now not asking people if they filed an amended return in order to prevent them from using the tool.
So if somebody became divorced after the end of 2016, we don’t give them the option to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool because we don’t believe the information on their IRS tax form is what is needed to properly answer the FAFSA question. So for example, if they filed a joint tax return for 2016 and then got divorced in 2017, we wouldn’t let them use the DRT because they would be transferring back information for two parents - sorry, for two people when there’s only one person that should be reporting information on the FAFSA. So there’s no change to the criteria for determining somebody’s eligibility to use the Data Retrieval Tool.
(Kim Welsh): Thanks, Misty. I’ve got a question here, can you talk about if students and parents need to make corrections, again, how they will make those?
I can. And basically, the answer is it depends on whether what they’re correcting and whether they have used IRS Data Retrieval Tool to retrieve their information from the IRS into their FAFSA form or not.
So let’s go down the path where someone has not used the IRS Data Retrieval Tool process. That process for making corrections has not changed whatsoever. So if someone does not use the Data Retrieval Tool, they can make corrections. If they have an FSA ID, they can log in. The applicant can make corrections that way. They can also always work with the financial aid office at the school where they want to attend and the financial aid administrator can make corrections for them. They could also make corrections on their paper SAR which is a very, very, very small percentage of the population.
If an applicant chooses to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool and retrieve their information from the IRS into their FAFSA form, then they can make corrections to any of the non-IRS retrieved information the regular way. So they could use their FSA ID. They could log in at (). They could make corrections to any of the non-IRS data items that way. They could make corrections through their financial aid administrator. They have all the regular options available to make corrections to non-IRS retrieved data elements that way. I mean, those ways, excuse me.
If they wanted to, for some reason, make corrections to information that was retrieved from the IRS and we don’t believe that there should be too many of those because the information came directly from the IRS, but if they did for some reason need to make changes to - or excuse me, corrections to the information that was retrieved from the IRS, then they’re going to have to work with their financial aid administrator to get those corrections made because they can’t see the information that was retrieved from the IRS. So they won’t be able to update that information using those regular channels. They would need to go to their financial aid administrator to get those corrections done.
Misty Parkinson: Thanks, (Kim).
(Kim Welsh): Yes.
Misty Parkinson: So the next question that I’m going to take is, can you repeat the change to the marital question? So I just want to clarify that the intent of the question, the meaning of the question, what we’re trying to collect by asking this question has not changed. What we have found is that as a result of a change we made a few years ago, there has been more confusion about how to properly answer the question. So our intent is to try to eliminate that confusion and make it easier for people to understand the question.
So for the last few years, the question had asked, as of today, what is the marital status of your legal parents? And then there are five different response options, never married, unmarried and both parents living together, married or remarried, divorced or separated, and widowed. We don’t really want to know the marital status of your legal parent. For example, I happen to be the child of divorced parents. My legal parents are divorced. However, each one of them is remarried. The actual question is what is the marital status of my parents. And then there is information that helps the applicant understand which parents they should be basically identifying as their FAFSA parent and what is that parent’s marital status. So in my case, if I were much, much, much younger and I had to provide parents’ information on the FAFSA, I would be reporting information for my mother who happens to be remarried. And so I will be reporting married or remarried for her status.
As (Kim) described, the Unmarried and Both Parents Living Together option is the only one that is specifically about legal parents. And so what we did is we removed the term “legal” from the question itself and added it to that specific option. So the new wording of the question is, as of today, what is the marital status of your parents and then the Unmarried and Both Parents Living Together response option has been changed to Unmarried and Both Legal Parents Living Together. So we’re hoping that that provides better clarification so that people have an easier time answering the question.
(Kim Welsh): Thanks for that additional information, Misty.
So my next question is, is there a delay in processing or a penalty for not using the automated IRS transfer? And the short answer to that is no, neither. There’s no delay in processing and there is certainly no penalty for not using the Data Retrieval Tool.
Misty Parkinson: Thanks, (Kim). So the next question I’m going to take is related to the homeless youth question. We need clarification about the homeless youth determination. Everyone’s understanding is that if a student is determined homeless by the school district under the McKinney-Vento law, then that is only good for the one year after they graduate. So there’s no change to the FAFSA questions themselves. The time frame - I’m trying to find the question here, so I can say it properly.
The time frame is no different. So previously, we asked the questions at any time on or after July 1st of a particular year. We’re continuing to do that. So for the 2018-19 FAFSA, it’s at any time on or after July 1st 2017. And then the questions specifically ask about who made the determination whether it’s the high school or school district homeless liaison, the director of an emergency shelter or transitional housing program funded by HUD or the director of a runaway or homeless youth basic center or transitional living program. None of that is changing. That is exactly the same as it has been since those questions were added to the application.
The only thing that’s changing is that where we previously had defined a youth as somebody who was under the age of 22. We are now no longer assigning an age to the definition of youth. So if somebody is determined to be dependent on the FAFSA based on how they’ve answered all the other dependency questions and they get to the homeless question and indicate that they are homeless or at risk of being homeless and unaccompanied, then they will be able to answer these questions where previously they couldn’t. They were taken down a special path that led them directly to the financial aid administrator who ultimately had to make the determination as to whether they qualified as unaccompanied homeless or at risk of being homeless applicant.
(Kim Welsh): Thanks, Misty. My next question is about the IRS Data Retrieval Tool and it is, will the parent or student know why the tax information is not disclosed on the Student Aid Report?
We provide messaging - if they choose to use IRS Data Retrieval Tool, we provide messaging on that indicates that their information will not be displayed on the IRS site. On the IRS site, we also - there’s also information provided by the IRS that explains that they will not be able to see their tax information on the IRS site or on the site. We don’t explain to them necessarily why. The terminology says that it’s related to protect their information basically for privacy and security concerns that it won’t be visible to them. But other than that, we don’t provide them any more information about why it’s not visible.
Misty Parkinson: Thanks, (Kim). So the next question that I’ll be answering is, can you review how a rollover, which is indicated on a tax return, will be handled on the FAFSA now?
So I want to clarify that if somebody does not use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, they will answer the question the same way as in the past which is to look on their tax return at the line items that we specified in the question and then subtract the rollover amount. And a rollover amount is something that’s handwritten on the tax return. So the applicant or parent would have to have their tax return in hand in order to be able to properly answer that question.
For somebody who uses the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, when they transfer the information back into the FAFSA, if a nonzero dollar amount transferred back for either the untaxed portions of IRA distributions or the untaxed portions of pensions question, then we’ll ask a new question which is, did you have any rollovers? And if the answer is yes, then we ask them to tell us how much the rollover was then the system will do the math. They’ll take the amount that’s transferred from the IRS and subtract the amount that was reported as the rollover amount. And then that becomes the answer to the FAFSA question.
(Kim Welsh): Okay. Thanks, Misty. I’ve got a question related to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool again. The question is, what is the advantage for students and parents for using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool?
And the advantage - there are a couple of advantages, I believe. Number one, the information will be accurate because it’s coming directly from the IRS. So there won’t be any mistakes made, no math errors or anything like that. No accidentally, you know, entering in an extra digit or anything like that. So number one, it’ll be accurate. Number two, it’s a fairly straightforward process. Number three, it may result in the applicant or parent having to provide less documentation or less information to the financial aid administrators of the school where they’re going later on down the road should the application be selected for a review process called verification.
So it could result in less paperwork later on down the road and it’s the most accurate way in order to get the correct information into the FAFSA.
Misty Parkinson: Thanks, (Kim). The next question that I’m going to take is, if the IRS will be providing the information that amended tax return is on file, how will the schools know? Will there be a new comment code?
So currently, we have an IRS display flag and an IRS request flag on the ISIR which is how information is communicated to colleges. The IRS request - sorry, the IRS display flag tells a financial aid administrator whether the option to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool was presented to the student or parent and if it was presented to them - sorry, and if it was not presented to them, why?
So currently, if somebody indicates in the application that they filed an amended return, then there’s an IRS display flag value of H and that’s how a financial aid administrator knows that the option to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool was never even presented to the student or parent and that’s why they didn’t use it.
Now that we’re relying on the IRS to communicate whether there’s an amended return on file, there will no longer be an IRS display flag value of H. Instead, there will be an IRS request flag value of 7. The IRS request flag is what lets the financial aid administrator know the results of somebody actually - basically, let the financial aid administrator know what happened if the IRS Data Retrieval Tool was presented to the user. So a 7 indicates that the user went over to the IRS, they transferred their information back into the FAFSA and along with the data that was used to answer the FAFSA question, there’s Also an indication from the IRS that there is an amended return on file. And so financial aid administrators should be using that flag value in order to know who they need to follow up with.
And we did post an electronic announcement, (Kim). It was about three weeks ago that we posted that electronic announcement. It’s very lengthy but a fabulous read. So I highly encourage you to read it from beginning to end. Put a lot of work into that. It’s a work of art, we think. And it provides that information, what’s the different IRS display flag and request flag value meaning and what financial aid administrators are expected to do if they see request flag value of 7.
(Kim Welsh): Yes, it was August 8. Or 7. Excuse me, August 7th that we posted it.
Misty Parkinson: Thanks, (Kim).
(Kim Welsh): Yes.
Misty Parkinson: So, (Kim), if you’d like to take the last question, I think, we’re going to wrap things up.
(Kim Welsh): Okay. So I’ve got - related to the question that you were just talking about - Misty, I was just looking through to see the other questions that we have in the queue but this one is about the amended tax return also. And someone is asking if we could please clarify if the amended tax return income would be transferred to the income section of the FAFSA.
And we just want to be clear that the information, even if the IRS indicates that there’s an amended return on file, the information that’s transferred into the FAFSA form on is still the originally filed tax information. So it’s not the amended return information that’s on file with the IRS. It’s the originally filed information and that’s why we have the indicator to the financial aid administrator that there’s an amended return - the IRS had indicated that there’s an amended return on file because it’s still going to be the originally filed tax information from the IRS.
Misty Parkinson: Thanks, (Kim). I do want to take just one more question because I want to make sure that this is clear for people because this impacts frigid materials that some of you may finalizing right now and this is about the change to the URL. And I just want to make sure that everybody understands that this is not something that is specific to the FAFSA. This is a government-wide change. We’re just communicating to you how it’s impacting the FAFSA but all government Web sites are impacted in the same way. So just to clarify, we will no longer be using WWW nor will we be using HTTP. It will be HTTPS.
However, if you just type in any browser, then you should automatically be taken to the right URL. There is a redirect in place that will take you where you need to go if you type in . So if you’re printing materials, then I would encourage you to just use which is the URL that we promote at Federal Student Aid.
All right. So I would like to thank everybody for joining us today. We had a very large audience and I’m very happy that you took the time out of your schedules in order to hear about the changes that we’re making to the 2018-19 FAFSA.
And on behalf of (Kim) and myself, I want to wish you all a fabulous day. Thank you.
(Kim Welsh): Thanks, everybody.
END
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