Financial Aid Training

FM Verification and Conflicting Information (2024-25)

This track covers the tax-related information that the Department of Education expects financial aid professionals to understand in the post-FUTURE Act, post-FAFSA Simplification era.

It covers all the changes to need analysis, verification, and conflicting information resolution introduced with the Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange (FADDX) tool as well as tax concepts that will continue to play the role they have in the past.

Topics covered will include the following, which is subject to change based on the Department of Education’s rollout of guidance and policy:

• How income factors into the Student Aid Index formula
• How income factors into Maximum and Minimum Pell Grant eligibility
• Proper protection and use of Personal Tax Information (PTI)
• V1 Verification
• Manually entered tax information and “will file” applicants
• Rollovers and the foreign earned income exclusion
• Who is required to file a tax return?
• Proper use and storage of Federal Tax Information (FTI)
• Splitting a single contributor’s income out of a joint tax return
• Professional judgments and corrections involving PTI
• Unique issues in the 2022 tax code

FM Verification and Conflicting Information (2023-24)

This track covers the tax-related information that the Department of Education expects financial aid professionals to understand.

It discusses verification, conflicting information resolution, and advanced issues such as splitting an individual’s tax information out of a joint tax return and properly reporting income earned from work.

Topics covered include:

• Verifying non-filers
• Who is required to file a tax return?
• Verifying tax filers
• Filing status
• Amended and changed tax returns
• IRS – FAFSA marital status mismatches
• Income adjustment professional judgment
• Income earned from work
• Unique issues in the 2021 tax code

Business, Real Estate, and Trust Tax Returns

After completing this track, aid officers will be able to review most business, real estate, and trust tax returns to determine the amount of income these entities might be able to provide their owners and beneficiaries during the academic year.

This program is geared at aid officers working in schools that go beyond the federal methodology as they determine eligibility for their institutional funds, and officers interested in becoming strong candidates for jobs at these institutions.

Topics covered include:

• What can we learn from Business Tax Returns?
• Basic business expenses
• Depreciation, amortization, and depletion
• Schedule C
• Schedule E and Form 8825
• Introduction to pass-through entities
• Partnerships – Form 1065 and Schedule K-1 (Form 1065)
• S Corporations – Form 1120-S and Schedule K-1 (Form 1120-S)
• C Corporations – Form 1120
• Valuing businesses and real estate
• Trusts
• Need analysis challenges in 2022-23 (with 2020 as the base year), or 2023-24 (with 2021 as the base year)