As financial aid offices across the country know, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is now available for families to complete for the 2020-2021 academic year, as of October 1. In 2018, the U.S Department of Education awarded more than $122 billion in federal awards. A few, minor updates have been made for the 2020-2021 FAFSA.
“Improving students and families’ experience with the FAFSA has been a key priority since day one,” said Secretary DeVos. “With our transformative myStudentAid mobile app and customer-centric approach, completing the FAFSA is now simpler, faster and more intuitive.”
Similar to the 2019-2020 cycle, students and families can complete the FAFSA through fafsa.gov or the myStudentAid mobile application. This year, the FAFSA web version has been fully synchronized with the myFAFSA component of the mobile application so allowing families to transition between the two formats seamlessly. The app has also been updated to improve the signature process and provides checklists and push notifications (optional) to help families through the next steps.
The other big updates to the FAFSA are the revisions, removal, or combination of questions due to the new tax forms implemented in 2018:
- Revision of tax form questions to remove references to 1040A or 1040 EZ tax forms and include the new IRS forms, 1040NR and 1040 NR-EZ.
- Removal of exemption-related fields for students and parents.
- Revision of questions to ask whether students and parents completed the Schedule 1 form.
- Combination of questions about “untaxed portions of IRA distributions” and “untaxed portions of pensions” for students and parents.
The following chart lists the 2018 IRS Form 1040 and schedules needed to verify the appropriate income and tax information:
Sources:
GEN-19-02: 2020-2021 Award Year: FAFSA Information to be Verified and Acceptable Documentation
IFAP Announcement: The 2020–21 FAFSA® Form and myStudentAid Mobile App are Now Available
Department of Education News: Secretary DeVos Continues to Transform FAFSA Experience with New Mobile App Features, Enhanced Student Privacy Protections as 2020-21 Cycle Launches
FSA Fiscal Year Report