1 **Summary of Enhancements to**  **the 2014** **- 2015**  **Free Application for**  **Federal Student Aid**  **(FAFSA) General Change**  The Free Application for Federal Student Aid ( FAFSA ) has long been constructed to collect information about both of a student’s parents only if the parents are married and has used the gender
- specific terms “mother/stepmother,” and “father/stepfather.” As a result, the FAFSA has excluded income and other i nformation from one of the student’s legal parents if the parents are unmarried but are living together and is therefore inconsistent with the statutory e xpected family c ontribution ( EFC ) calculation provisions that do not reference the parents’ marital st atus or gender. To address this inconsistency, t he Department is making a change to the collection of parental information on the FAFSA . Beginning with the 2014
- 2015 FAFSA, the response “Unmarried and both parents living together” will be added to the existing responses for the parents’ marital status question. When this new response is chosen, the FAFSA will collect information from both of the dependent student’s legal (biological or adoptive) parents if they live together to calculate the student’s EFC regardless of the marital status or gender of the parents . Th is change make s the application and the EFC calculation consistent with the statute (HEA section 475) which uses the term s “parent” and “parents ’ ,” rath er than “mother, ” “father, ” or “spouse . ” In some instances, the FAFSA will now use the gender neutral term “Parent” in lieu of the gender specific terms. However, it will also continue to use terms such as “father, ” “mother, ” “stepfather” and “ stepmother” where appropriate. Dependent students whose legal parents are unmarried and not living together would continue to provide the parental information on the parent that the student resided with the greater portion of the 12 months preceding the d ate of completing and submitting the FAFSA. The change will also provide a more equitable assessment of the financial resou rces available to the student, regardless of the student’s parents’ marital status or the gender of the student’s parents, and therefore make s the application and process more inclusive to recognize the diversity of American families. FAFSA on the Web (FOTW) T he Department will make enhancements to FOTW in order to collect the necessary information from the dependent student’s legal parents who are unmarried and are living together . FOTW will use display logic to ask the same questions for married parents and parents who are unmarried and living together. However, when the response is “Unmarried and both parents living together, ” q uestions that reference “father/stepfather” and “mother/stepmother” will be replaced by references to “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” or simply refer to “p arents . ” The reworded parental information questions will only be presented to2

dependent stude nts and to independent students who indicate they wish to provide parental information. As is presently the case for married parents who file taxes separately, p arents who are unmarried will not be presented the option of using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool because neither the IRS Data Retrieval Tool nor FOTW is currently able to collect financial information separa tely for each of those parents. FOTW instructions will be modified to include the new “Unmarried and both parents living together” response where applicable or will reference the reworded questions. The Department will also provide guidance informing students and parents on how to input IRS information i f they filed separate tax returns (1040, 1040A, or 1040 EZ) or have different filing status es (e.g. , filer, non -filer, or foreign tax return filer ). The guidance will include information on how to answer Questions 80
- 94 and will be available to all FOTW u sers. Th e change described above impacts other FAFSA data element s o n pages 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the paper instrument referenced below . In addition to the change to the dependent student’s parents’ marital status question, we are also making other enhancements to the 2014
- 2015 FAFSA as discussed below. **Field Length Changes Field Lengths**  **-** The field lengths for dollar amounts on t he FAFSA are increased to seven digits for the following Questions: 36, 37, 39 -45, 85, 86, and 88 - 94. The EFC field length is increased to six digits . **FAFSA Question/Response Changes Page 1**  The last sentence in paragraph one of the “Using Your Tax Return ” section will now read , “. . . you can submit your FAFSA now using estimated tax information, and then you **must correct** that informatio n **after you file** your return .” **Page 2** The last sentence in paragraph two of the “Notes for questions 14 and 15” will now read, “If you have a Social Security Number but are not a citizen or an eligible noncitizen, you should still complete the FAFSA because you may be eligible for state or col lege aid.” These instructions clarify how noncitizen and eligible noncitizen students should answer the citizenship question. **Page 3** • Revised Question 24 to read “Highest school completed by Parent 1 ”3

• Revised Question 25 to read “Hig hest school completed by Parent 2 ” **Page 4 and Page**  **6** The Department has added two new questions to the FAFSA which results in the renumbering of existing questions.

 Added Question 34 (Page 4)
- “What is or will be your tax filing status for 2013?”  Added Question 82 (Page 6 )
- “What is or will be your parents’ tax filing status for 2013?” Applicants will have the option to select the following IRS tax filing status es :
 Single;  Head of h ousehold;  Married , filed j oint return;  Married , filed s eparate return;  Qualifying w idow(er); or  Don’t k now These enhancement s will allow the Department to identify instances where the reported parent or student marital status on the FAFSA is inconsistent with the IRS tax return filing status. Ensuring consistency will impro ve the accuracy of financial information used to calculate the applicant’s EFC. On FAFSA on the Web (FOTW), i f the student and parents answer that an IRS tax return has or will be filed or has been complete d , the new tax filing status question will be di splayed. Parents who are unmarried and living together (see discussion above) will not be presented with the tax filing status question since neither the IRS Data Retrieval Tool , n or FOTW is able to collect financial information separately for each of those parents. **Page 5 and Page 7** 

• Revised Question 45i (Page 5) and 94i (P age 7) to remove the sentence, “Also include the first
-time homebuyer tax cre dit from IRS Form 1040 — line 67” , because this tax credit expired with the 2012 tax year and is not available for the 2013 tax year.

• Added the sentence “Also i nclude the untaxed portions of health saving a ccounts from IRS Form 1040 – line 25” to Questions 45i (Page 5) and 94i (Page 7) . This sentence was added bec ause tax free contributions to health saving a ccount s are considered untaxed income . **Page 6**4

• Revised Question 59 to read “As of today, what is the marital status of your legal p arents?” o Revised “Single” to “Never married” o Added a new response , “Unmarried and both parents living together”

• Removed parent references in individual questions and prefaced these questions with the following: o “Questions 61
- 64 are for Parent 1 (father/mother/stepparent)” o “Questions 65
- 68 are for Parent 2 (father/mother/stepparent)”

• A dded instructional text before Question 80 to read , “If your answer to question 59 was “Unmarried and both parents living together,” contact 1
- 800-4FED -AID for assistance answe ring questions 80 - 94” . **Page 7**

• Reworded Question 88 to read “ Ho w much did Parent 1 (father/mother/ste pparent) earn from working in 2013?”

• Reworded Question 89 to read “ How much did Parent 2 (father/mother/stepparent) earn from working in 2013?”