VERIFICATION OF PARENT AND/OR STUDENT FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Colleges and universities are required by law to verify the information contained in a student’s FAFSA. While not every FAFSA is selected for verification, some are.

SCHOOLS ARE CALLING, EMAILING OR CORRESPONDING WITH THE STUDENT – NOT THE PARENTS.
Your student should not ignore these requests for additional information, as it will affect any award package which may be offered.

FAFSA’s which were filed using the IRS DRT (Data Retrieval Tool) as a rule are not selected for income verification. However, the DRT is down, (as of March 3rd) are more likely to be pulled for income verification. This is also true for anyone who filed earlier, but did not use the DRT.

In addition, new this year, is the requirement of verification of non-filing. This applies particularly to students who more than likely did not file a tax return for 2015 or parents who indicated they had not filed a tax return in 2015.

Verification is done on a school by school basis, so one school may ask for verification, while another will not. Verification or an actual filing or non-filing can be accomplished by requesting an:

  • IRS Return Transcript (for a tax return that was filed), or
  • Verification of Non-Filing

Both of these can be requested using IRS Form 4506-T. (Use one form for each request.) The link below takes you to the form and filing instructions.

TO DETERMINE WHICH IRS CENTER YOU SHOULD USE, REFER TO THE INSTRUCTIONS ON PAGE 2,
WHICH LISTS THE NUMBERS BY STATE. USE THE STATE FOR WHICH YOU FILED YOUR 2015 RETURN.

PLEASE NOTE – THE FAX NUMBERS LISTED IN THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILED RETURN TRANSCRIPTS ARE NO LONGER WORKING NUMBERS FOR KANSAS CITY AND AUSTIN. THE CORRECT NUMBERS ARE:

  • KANSAS CITY – 1-855-821-0094 (For Maryland, Virginia and DC)
  • AUSTIN – 1-855-587-9604

THE NUMBERS IN THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL OTHER TRANSCRIPTS (INCLUDING NON-FILER TRANSCRIPTS) ARE CORRECT IN THE INSTRUCTIONS.

  • CINCINNATI -1-859-669-3592 (For Maryland, Virginia and DC)

While it should be possible to request a transcript online or by phone, we have heard that both of those options have not been working well. From the IRS web site:

…you may visit www.irs.gov/transcript to view and download a summary of your tax return, called a tax transcript, at Get Transcript Online. You must verify your identity to use this tool. You also may use Get Transcript by Mail or call 1-800-908-9946, and a transcript will be delivered to your address of record within five to 10 days.

We recommend that you use the Form 4506-T method.

In addition, you may find the following YouTube videos helpful:

Once you have received the form, you should forward it immediately to the college of university. DO NOT have the form sent directly to the school.