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ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

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Figure 5-21<br />

FAFSA Tax Filing Status during Initial Application, 2014–2015<br />

Share<br />

1.0<br />

0.9<br />

0.8<br />

0.7<br />

0.6<br />

0.5<br />

0.4<br />

0.3<br />

0.2<br />

Tax Filing Status<br />

Unknown<br />

Already Filed Taxes: IRS<br />

Data Transferred<br />

Already Filed Taxes: IRS<br />

Data Not Transferred<br />

Will File but Have Not<br />

Yet Completed Taxes<br />

Not Going to File Taxes<br />

0.1<br />

0.0<br />

Dependent<br />

Source: Department of Education<br />

Independent<br />

information barriers related to cost. Importantly, the Administration is also<br />

working with states and colleges to provide financial aid award information<br />

on this earlier timeline. Moreover, the earlier FAFSA cycle presents<br />

an opportunity to provide students with more timely information about<br />

the schools where they are applying. Starting with the 2018–19 application<br />

year, the Department of Education will present Scorecard data through<br />

the FAFSA so that students can make more informed decisions about the<br />

schools at which they plan on applying for admission and student aid based<br />

on both cost and student outcomes.<br />

Second, more students and families can complete their FAFSAs using<br />

information retrieved electronically directly from the IRS. In past years, a<br />

significant portion of FAFSA filers were unable to electronically retrieve<br />

their income and tax information from the IRS because they had not yet<br />

filed their tax returns before completing their FAFSA forms (Figure 5-21).<br />

For example, 34 percent of parents of dependent students had not yet filed<br />

their 2013 tax returns when they were initially completing their 2014-15<br />

FAFSA. Such applicants had to manually input their estimated income and<br />

tax information into their FAFSA, or worse, did not submit a timely FAFSA<br />

because they erroneously believed that they were not allowed to do so unless<br />

then had filed their tax returns. By utilizing tax information from two years<br />

338 | Chapter 5

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