Financial Aid
FAFSA Consent, Taxes and Financial Data
What is consent, and why do I have to provide it when completing the FAFSA 2024–25?
The FUTURE Act requires that every contributor on the FAFSA provide consent to share their taxes information in the application so that the IRS can share this information with Federal Student Aid (FSA). All parties whose Federal Tax Information (FTI) is included on a student’s FAFSA form must consent annually. The consent is required when a student submits a FAFSA.
The consent is necessary not only for the Department of Education to request federal tax information from the IRS but also to use that FTI in the federal student aid application process, as well as do other things such as redisclose that information to certain eligible entities, such as higher education institutions.
What happens if I, as a student, or a spouse or parent, don’t want to provide consent on the FAFSA?
If a student, spouse, or parent doesn’t provide consent on the FAFSA, the Student Aid Index (SAI) will not be calculated, and the student will not be eligible for any federal aid.
What if my parents (or spouse) had a low income and were not required to file taxes?
According to the IRS tax year 2022, these are the thresholds by filing status. If an independent student (and spouse, if married), or a parent of a dependent student, were not required to file a federal income tax return for 2022, then the student will automatically receive a Student Aid Index (SAI) equal to –1500. They still need to provide consent when submitting the FAFSA, so the IRS can confirm to Federal Student Aid (FSA) that the student, parents, and spouse didn’t file taxes.
Will non-custodial parents be contributors if they have not claimed the child on their taxes?
Starting with the 2024-25 FAFSA, students will determine which parent to report based on which one provides the most financial support. It is ok if the parent or parents reported do not claim the student on their taxes. The reported parents will provide consent to transfer their taxes data even if they do not claim the student on their taxes.
If parents that are remarried provide more support to the child than a biological parent, does the stepparent have to provide their taxes information?
Yes. If the parent providing more financial support is remarried, the stepparent’s tax information is required.
What if my parent or stepparent does not want to provide their tax information for my FAFSA?
Our Financial Aid Counselor can offer to talk directly with the parent or stepparent to explain why that information is needed and answer any questions, which sometimes puts them at ease about how their sensitive info will be used. However, we cannot provide tax advice.
How do I report small business or farm value as assets on the FAFSA?
Independent students or parents are the best sources for this estimate; they can also consult their accountant or other financial professional if they have access to one to estimate the amounts to report.
My parent(s) is self-employed – do they still need to say they own a business?
Being self-employed does end up showing business income on tax returns, but it depends on the type of work whether they will have to report any assets associated with their business.
I, and/or my parents or spouse, amended our taxes. Will my Federal Tax Information (FTI) be transferred, or do I have to provide a 1040X later to the school?
Starting with the 2024–25 FAFSA, when the student, spouse, parent, and/or stepparent provides consent, the IRS’s Federal Tax Information (FTI) will include the information from an amended tax return.
Can I self-report my income on FAFSA?
After you provide consent on the FAFSA, if the IRS cannot transfer your Federal Tax Information (FTI) to your FAFSA application, the application will allow you to self-report it. Self-reporting one’s tax information on the FAFSA does not override the requirement for each required contributor to provide consent on the FAFSA form. So, two pieces – they need to provide consent and share their tax information, either directly from the IRS or self-reported manually, on the FAFSA form. This method is not recommended due to increased processing time.
If a parent of a dependent student or an independent student is a non-filer and has zero wages, do they have to provide consent?
Any individual who is a contributor to the FAFSA application must provide consent. This includes parents, and independent students, regardless of their tax filing status. Generally, the parents of independent students are not contributors and would, therefore, not need to provide consent.
What happens if a contributor provides consent but doesn’t sign the application?
Starting in 2024–25, there will be only two options for filing a FAFSA form: electronically, through fafsa.gov, or the option to file on paper which will also be available. However, once an application is started online, all parties must complete it online. So that means that if a signature is missing, the parent or the contributor that needs to complete their section and/or sign the application must obtain an FSA ID and get into the application and complete their section.
There is no option to print a signature page any longer. For this reason, financial aid administrators will not be able to submit complete FAFSA forms because of the consent provision that all contributors must provide and sign.
Students and parents will be required to have an FSA ID to complete the FAFSA application online. If they choose to mail a paper FAFSA, both will need to provide consent on the paper FAFSA, and both will need to provide physical signatures and mail the application to the Department of Education address on the paper application. This method is not recommended due to complexity and increased processing time.
In what situations will there be a match with the IRS, but the IRS wouldn’t provide information?
Fraud or identity theft are the most likely reasons for the IRS not providing tax information to the applicant or the contributor. If the contributor has been flagged by the IRS, possibly due to identity theft or a breach of some sort to their information, then the IRS response code will be IRS unable to provide information.
If my parent does not want to or refuses to create an FSA ID, is there an alternative for that parent to provide consent, such as mailing a physical signature on the consent page?
There is no longer a separate signature page, and there won’t be a consent signature option on paper. There are two alternative options for contributors to provide consent who do not want to or refuse to create an FSA ID. One option is to submit a paper FAFSA form completed by all contributors and mailed to the Federal Student Aid. This method is not recommended due to complexity and increased processing time.
Return to 2024-25 FAFSA Simplification page.