Since you mentioned having rental property income, make sure you understand how that will be reported on the FAFSA. For the 2025-2026 application, you'll need to report your 2023 tax information. Rental property income appears on Schedule E, and while the income is considered, the actual value of the property isn't directly reported on the FAFSA anymore under the simplified formula. However, business equity is still reportable if you have more than 100 employees in your self-employment business. The FAFSA Simplification reduced asset reporting requirements for many families, but those with more complex financial situations should definitely prepare documentation well in advance.

Has anyone had issues with the IRS Data Retrieval Tool? It never worked for us this year, kept saying our information didn't match their records even though we were looking right at our tax return while entering the info. Is there a trick to making it work? Because manually entering all the tax information was a nightmare.

One more tip - the 2025-2026 FAFSA will still use the new "Student Aid Index" (SAI) instead of the old "Expected Family Contribution" (EFC). The calculation is different, so don't be surprised if your aid eligibility seems different than what you might have expected or heard about from friends with older children. The new formula treats family contributions differently, especially for families with multiple children in college simultaneously. It also has different treatment of small business assets and farm value. If your SAI seems unexpectedly high when you get your results, you can always contact the financial aid offices at your daughter's chosen schools to discuss professional judgment adjustments.

idk if anyone mentioned but some states have their own deadlines for state grants that are way earlier than college deadlines!! my brother missed out on state money because we didnt know about that. check your state financial aid website!!

UPDATE: I called FSA using the Claimyr service someone recommended below (actually worked!), and got confirmation on handling my tax-exempt situation. The agent confirmed I should select "Will Not File" and include my disability income in the untaxed income section. She mentioned I'll likely be selected for verification, at which point I'll need to provide: 1. My official tax exemption letter 2. A Verification of Non-Filing Letter from the IRS (request online at irs.gov) 3. Documentation of my disability benefits Just wanted to update in case anyone else has this same question! Thanks for all the help, everyone.

Just an FYI - make sure your daughter also applies for outside scholarships! My son qualified for decent FAFSA aid with my disability situation, but we still had a big gap to fill. The disability scholarships were super helpful (there are several specifically for students with disabled parents). Don't forget to check with her specific schools too - many have supplemental forms that can help identify extra institutional aid she might qualify for. Good luck!

FAFSA is the WORST!!!1! I had similar problems last year and spent DAYS trying to get it fixed. The whole systems a mess. Try contacting your daughter's college financial aid office too - sometimes they can see what's wrong on their end or give you specific advice. My daughter's college financial aid officer actually had a direct number to FAFSA that worked better than the public one.

any update? did u get it fixed? my nephews fafsa is having issues now too so curious what worked for u

All of these "solutions" are ridiculous. The entire new FAFSA system is a DISASTER. My daughter is about to miss scholarship deadlines because of these exact contributor issues. Why should we have to pay a third-party service just to talk to someone at FSA about THEIR broken system? This is your tax dollars at work, people!!

UPDATE: Finally fixed! For anyone with the same problem - we discovered my daughter had accidentally added a space at the end of my email address when entering it. The FSA agent we spoke to (thanks for the Claimyr tip, it worked great) said this is happening constantly. They need better error checking in their system! And yes, the -1500 SAI stayed the same after adding our info, which the agent confirmed is the optimal score for aid eligibility. Such a confusing system, but at least we're done now.