FAFSA didn't request parent tax information for 2025-2026 - is this normal?

did she answer that she was independent on the dependency questions? thats usually why it skips parent tax info

This actually might be because of the new Direct Data Exchange system that was implemented with the FAFSA Simplification Act. If you and your husband both successfully linked your IRS records when setting up your FSA IDs, the system now automatically pulls your tax information directly from the IRS without asking you to manually input it. You should be able to verify this happened by checking the parent contribution section summary - it should show an "IRS Data Retrieved" status somewhere if the system worked correctly.

THE SAME EXACT THING HAPPENED TO ME!!! I spent THREE HOURS trying to figure out why my husband's income wasn't being asked for and ended up calling FSA but got disconnected FOUR TIMES after waiting 55+ minutes each time!!! So frustrating!!!! Did you ever figure this out?? My daughter needs her aid package information for her college decision by next month!!!

Try Claimyr if you need to actually talk to someone at Federal Student Aid about this. They'll call FSA for you and wait on hold, then call you when an agent is actually on the line. I spent weeks trying to reach someone about a similar issue with tax information not showing up correctly. Used their service and got through in about 30 minutes instead of getting disconnected repeatedly. You can see how it works in their video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ or just go to claimyr.com. Saved me so much frustration.

this happened with my sons application too and we just submitted it anyway. his college financial aid office emailed a week later asking us to correct it and resubmit because our income wasn't recorded. definitely check before you submit!!

To properly check if your tax information was pulled correctly: 1. Log into studentaid.gov with your parent FSA ID 2. Go to the FAFSA application (you can view the submitted one) 3. Navigate to the "Parent Information" section 4. Look for the "Financial Information" subsection 5. There should be a status indicator showing "IRS Data Retrieved" or something similar If you don't see that, or if it shows an error message, you'll need to submit a correction to the FAFSA. The FAFSA Simplification Act was supposed to make this process easier, but it's causing a lot of confusion in its first year of implementation. The Direct Data Exchange sometimes fails silently without proper notification.

I actually work as a financial aid counselor at a community college, and we've been seeing this issue a lot this year. The new FAFSA is supposed to streamline the process by pulling tax data directly, but it's causing a lot of confusion. Here's what's happening: If you successfully linked your IRS data when creating your FSA IDs, the system pulls your tax information automatically without asking you to manually enter it. However, there's a glitch where some applications aren't properly showing parents that this happened. To verify: Log in and check the Parent Information summary before final submission. Look for text indicating "IRS Data Retrieved" or similar. If you see your AGI listed correctly, you're good to go. If not, you'll need to submit a correction after getting the SAI calculation. The good news is that corrections are processed much faster than initial applications this year.

my daughter's application did the same thing but then got rejected because it didnt have our income so definitely check before submitting

When I did my FAFSA this year my parents had to check a box to allow the IRS data retrieval tool to work and we had to wait like 3 days before it showed up. Maybe check if there's a processing delay?

UPDATE: I went back and checked our application using the steps provided here. Under the Parent Information section, it does show "IRS Data Retrieved" for both me and my husband, along with our correct AGI amounts! So it looks like the system did pull our tax information automatically, they just didn't make it very clear during the application process. Thank you all for your help - this was stressing me out so much! The confirmation email we received also shows our contribution amount, so I think everything is working as intended.

This is such a helpful thread! I'm a new parent going through this process for the first time and was completely panicked when the same thing happened with my son's FAFSA. The new Direct Data Exchange system really needs better messaging during the application - it should clearly tell you "We're automatically retrieving your tax data from the IRS" instead of just skipping those questions without explanation. For anyone else dealing with this, the verification steps shared here are gold. I checked our application and sure enough, it shows "IRS Data Retrieved" even though we never manually entered any tax info. What a relief!

I'm going through this exact same process with my daughter right now and this thread has been incredibly helpful! As a first-time FAFSA parent, I was completely confused when it skipped asking for our tax information. The new Direct Data Exchange system really should have better user communication - maybe a simple message saying "Your tax data is being automatically retrieved from the IRS" would save so much stress. I just checked our application using the steps provided here and confirmed we have the "IRS Data Retrieved" status. Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences and solutions!

As someone who works at a financial aid office, I want to emphasize how common this confusion has been this year! The FAFSA Simplification Act was supposed to make things easier, but the lack of clear communication about the Direct Data Exchange is causing so much unnecessary stress for families. What you experienced - the system automatically pulling tax data without explicitly telling you - is exactly how it's designed to work now. I'm glad you were able to verify everything transferred correctly! For future reference, if anyone encounters issues where the IRS data retrieval fails, you can always go back and make corrections to manually enter the tax information. The new system is generally much faster once you understand how it works.