Verification

What is verification?

Verification is a process to confirm the information you provided on the FAFSA - Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Verification selection can be random or because your FAFSA data was incomplete, estimated or inconsistent. The U.S. Department of Education selects some students for the verification process. We will select others if we find conflicting information.

We are required to ask you to provide documentation to confirm the information on your FAFSA. This may include a verification worksheet and/or may include your tax transcript or return. If you are a dependent student, we may also request a copy of your parent's tax transcript or return.

Required Documents

Changes for the 2013-14 Academic Year:

When verifying your 2013-14 FAFSA, we are no longer allowed to accept a signed copy of a 1040 tax return form to complete the verification process. This is a federal regulation that we must follow.

To document your tax return, you may:

• Use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to transfer 2012 tax data to your FAFSA , OR
• Request an IRS Tax Transcript

IRS Data Retrieval Tool

If you did not use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool when you filed your 2013-14 FAFSA, you may still do so.

1. Login at fafsa.gov to “Make FAFSA Corrections”
2. On the FAFSA, in the Financial Information section, click “Link to IRS’”
3. On the IRS website, fill out the form and click on “Transfer my tax information into the FAFSA”

You will be unable to use IRS Data Retrieval Tool if:

• Your marital status changed after December 31, 2012
• You filed an amended return (See Tax Transcript below)
• You filed married filing separately You filed a tax return using a Tax ID Number (TIN)
• You filed a foreign tax return - Submit a signed copy of your return to the financial aid office
• The home address on the FAFSA does not match the address on the tax return

Note: Tax information electronically filed within the last 2 weeks or submitted by mail within the last 8 weeks may not be available.

IRS Tax Transcript

If you are selected for verification of your 2013-14 FAFSA, and are unable to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, you must submit an official IRS TAX RETURN TRANSCRIPT, (not an Account Transcript.) There are 3 ways to do this:

• Request one electronically on the IRS website at www.irs.gov
  • In the Tools section of the homepage click “Order a Return or Account Transcript”
    • Under Choice 3, click “Order a transcript"
• Then select "Return Transcript"

• Or you may call the IRS at 1-800-908-9946 and follow the prompts to request a Tax Transcript for 2012
• Or you may file Form 4506T-EZ

If you filed an Amended Return:

• Submit both an IRS Tax "Return Transcript" and an IRS Tax "Account Transcript," OR
• Submit the Record of Account, (using IRS Form 4506-T), which could take 30 days

REMEMBER: Include your student ID number on your tax transcript before you submit it to our office.

IMPORTANT DOCUMENT NOTE: If you are applying for aid at other schools, please make a copy of your tax transcript for your records before you submit to us. We will not keep paper copies of any documents and the IRS will currently only accommodate one request.