Huntington Beach College

The federal government has been trying for years to make theFree Application for Federal StudentAid less complicated.

It should get kudos for the effort, but millions of parents still mess upwhen tackling this financial aid form. But bless its heart, the federalgovernment is trying, in what might be it’s biggest push ever, to makecompleting the FAFSAfar less painless for the vast majority of families who wrestle with it.

Here’s the big development, which has been years in the making: After you’vefiled your federal income taxes you can retrieve the tax information throughsomething called the IRS Data Retrieval tool. Actually this tool was available a coupleof years ago, but for reasons not worth getting into, most families weren’teligible to use it.

With advances in IRS technology, this data retrieval tool should now beextremely helpful to most tax filers. With the click of a button, the tool willallow you to transfer your IRS tax return information to the FAFSA website tocomplete your financial aid form. The data retrieval feature is scheduled to beavailable beginning Feb. 1.

Completing the FAFSA with data directly from your IRS tax form is expectedto not only make the process easier, but also cut down on errors, which shouldlead to more accurate financial aid awards.

If you aren’t already electronically filing your tax returns this will giveyou motivation to do so. That’s because once you file your tax return, thenumbers in the return should be available for FAFSA purposes in one-to-twoweeks. If you file a paper tax return, the data won’t be available forsix-to-eight weeks.

For the first time, applicants, who indicate that they have already filed afederal tax return, will be directed to use the IRS tool. Applicants whohaven’t filed yet, will be asked to use the tool once they have completed their2011 federal tax return. The same goes for families who want to correct orupdate their filed FAFSA

This won’t be convenient for families who won’t get their taxes done untilcloser to the April 15 deadline. Unfortunately, parents typically can’t waitthat long because schools often impose earlier deadlines for financial aid, asdo many state aid programs.

If you file the FAFSA long before you complete your taxes, you can estimatethe  FAFSA figures that require your tax return. Applicants, who estimatetheir taxes for the FAFSA must use the tool after they file their returns toupdate the financial aid application.

Here are the three criteria for using the tool:

If you are married, but file separate taxes, you can’t use the dataretrieval tool.

Some schools are requiring that families use the data retrieval system orare strongly recommending it.

I found a nifty tutorial on the DataRetrieval Tool on a California State University website, which Ithink you’ll find helpful.

Let’s hope this new tool will make everybody’s FAFSA experience a lessstressful one this year!

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I will be holding my next two college workshops at the University ofCalifornia, San Diego on Jan. 28 and Feb. 4. At the workshops — you can sign upfor one or both – I aim to share with you ways to help you make smart decisionsabout picking colleges and making them more affordable. You can learn morehereand sign up for the workshops here.Lynn O’Shaughnessy

The College Solution