Previously made changes to the 1040 tax form by the Department of the Treasury raised concern recently among a group of Democratic senators, specifically that these changes would lead to errors in self-reporting for students filing their FAFSA. The changes included the elimination of tax forms 1040A and 1040EZ, with taxpayers being made to use the 1040 form alone.
The senators, Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Doug Jones (D-AL), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), wrote in their letter to the Department of Education that these changes would mean that the IRS Data Retrieval Tool would “no longer be able to be able to import certain tax information during the upcoming financial aid cycle that begins in October 2019.” The letter then states that as a result of this, the process of completing the FAFSA will not only be more complicated, but that students and families will be more likely to submit erroneous information in their FAFSAs regarding their eligibility for financial aid.
In particular, the letter states that due to the removal of the 1040A and 1040E tax forms, “the Department of Education may have difficulty determining whether applicants satisfy the Simplified Needs Test and are eligible for an “auto zero” Expected Family Contribution. This puts many students at risk of not receiving the federal financial aid for which they are eligible.”
The senators expressed concern that the Department’s solution to the issue, (which is to include a question in the FAFSA asking if the student had filed or will file a Schedule 1), would lead to students who give mistaken answers to this question losing access to the Simplified Needs Test, even if they are eligible.