Parents of college age students…College, or soon to be, college students...
Your FASFAs are due on March 1 (if not sooner). That means that you will need information from your 2012 tax return to complete that form. If you haven’t already, you need to get your tax return info into your return preparer…now. Even so, it might be too late to have the return finished in time. It will depend on their schedule and the returns ahead of you.
This is not your preparer’s fault. They can’t miraculously complete a last minute return because you procrastinated getting your info to them.
If you need your tax return to prepare a FASFA, tell your preparer when you take in the tax return. If they need more information to complete the return, get it to them ASAP. And understand that they may need more than a few hours to complete the return once they have all your information. You are not the preparer’s only client and there are a limited number of hours in a day.
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It seems silly that the FAFSA is due before tax returns are due, when they are tied together so closely. I'm sure it's a practical matter for the colleges (I work at one so I know that "practical" doesn't always equate with logical) but it is crazy that the deadlines overlap.
Posted by: KDB | March 06, 2013 at 02:38 PM