Paper Summary of Enhancement

Summary of Enhancements to the Paper

2023-2024 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form

Section 1: In this section, we’ve described changes to the 2023-24 FAFSA PDF resulting from public comments. Some of these changes also impact fafsa.gov.

Page 1

• In the “Fill Out the FAFSA Form” heading, we’ve added pay cuts to the examples provided in the first sentence.

• In the footnotes for the FAFSA filing deadlines, we’ve updated the ^ footnote to read “As soon as possible on or after Oct. 1, 2022.”

Page 4

• For question 30, we inserted the word “Form” between IRS and 1040 in the answer options and also inserted a dash between “1040” and “NR.”

• For additional clarity, we’ve refined the last sentence in the instructions for questions 35 and 36 to read “If a tax form line’s value is negative, treat it as a zero in your calculation.”

Page 5

• For questions 40b and 88b, we’ve bolded the word “paid” for emphasis

• For question 41b, we’ve updated the tax line reference number to read “IRA deductions and payments to self-employed SEP, SIMPLE, Keogh and other qualified plans from IRS Form 1040 Schedule 1 total of lines 16 + 20.”

• For question 41c, we’ve bolded the word “received” for emphasis

• For question 41h, we’ve updated the first sentence in the question to read “Other untaxed income not reported in items 41a and 41g, such as workers’ compensation, disability benefits, untaxed foreign income not earned from work. Also include the untaxed portion of health savings accounts from IRS Form 1040 Schedule 1 – line 13.”

Page 6

• For question 77, we’ve inserted the word “Form” between IRS and 1040 in the answer options and also inserted a dash between “1040” and “NR.”

Page 7

• In the instructions for questions 83 and 84, we’ve added the statement “ If a tax form line’s value is negative, treat it as a zero in your calculation.””

• For question 88b, we’ve bolded the word “paid” for emphasis

• For question 89b, we’ve updated the tax line reference number to read “IRA deductions and payments to self-employed SEP, SIMPLE, Keogh and other qualified plans from IRS Form 1040 Schedule 1 total of lines 16 + 20.”

• For question 89c, we’ve bolded the word “received” for emphasis

• For question 89h, we’ve updated the first sentence in the question to read “Other untaxed income not reported in items 41a and 41g, such as workers’ compensation, disability benefits, untaxed foreign income not earned from work. Also include the untaxed portion of health savings accounts from IRS Form 1040 Schedule 1 – line 13.”

Page 9

• In the second paragraph of the notes for questions 14 and 15, we’ve added hyphens to the visa types and added the M1 visa type.

• The notes for questions 32 and 79 have been updated with 2021 IRS tax line references:

  • Unemployment compensation (line 7)

  • Alaska Permanent Fund dividends (line 8f)

  • Educator expenses (line 11)

  • IRA deduction (line 20)

  • Student loan interest deduction (line 21)

Changes to the Incarcerated Applicant FAFSA PDF resulting from public comments.

Page 1

In the “Fill Out the FAFSA Form” section, we’ve updated the first bulleted instruction to read “use dark ink and fill in circles completely”

Changes to the 2023-24 Student Aid Report (SAR) and SAR Acknowledgement resulting from public comments.

• Question labels for questions 30 and 77 on the SAR and SAR Acknowledgement will be updated to “IRS Form 1040”

• For questions 40b and 88b, the word “paid” will be

  • bolded on the English version

  • underlined on the Spanish version

• For questions 41c and 89c, the word “received” will be

  • bolded on the English version

  • underlined on the Spanish version

• The instructions for questions 83 and 84 on the SAR have been updated to include the statement “If a tax form line’s value is negative, treat it as a zero in your calculation.”

Section 2: 2023-24 Enhancements to the FAFSA PDF communicated in the Federal Register posted February 25, 2022

Global Changes

• We’ve

  • incremented the award year in the upper left corner to 2023-2024

  • incremented all year references throughout

  • changed the help link in the footer on pages 3, 5 and 7 to studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa-filling-out

  • added “Incarcerated Applicant Form” in the top margin of each page of the incarcerated version

Page 1

• We’ve incremented the year references in Column 2. However, deadline dates in this draft of the FAFSA form are not final. Dates will be finalized in consultation with the states, and included in the draft of the FAFSA form posted for the 30-day public comment period.

• In Fill Out the FAFSA Form, we’ve updated the link in the second paragraph to studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out

• In Mail Your FAFSA Form, we’ve updated the P.O. Box number in the regular PDF and provided a new P.O. Box number for the incarcerated PDF

Page 3

• In Step One Instructions, we’ve updated the question numbers to reflect the removal of the Selective Service and drug conviction questions

• We’ve removed former questions 21, 22 (Selective Service questions) and 23 (drug conviction question)

• As a result of the removal of the Selective Service and drug conviction questions, remaining question numbers have been decremented

Page 4

• Questions 35 & 36 – we’ve changed the instructions to be more clear and they now read “This information may be found on the W-2 forms or by adding up the following items: IRS Form 1040 – line 1 (or IRS Form 1040NR – line 1a) + Schedule 1 – lines 3 + 6 + Schedule K-1 (IRS Form 1065) – Box 14 (Code A).”

Page 7

• Questions 83 & 84 – we’ve changed the instructions to be more clear and they now read “This information may be found on the W-2 forms or by adding up the following items: IRS Form 1040 – line 1 (or IRS Form 1040NR – line 1a) + Schedule 1 – lines 3 + 6 + Schedule K-1 (IRS Form 1065) – Box 14 (Code A).”

Page 8

• In the Step Six Instructions, we’ve changed the link for the Federal School Code Search to studentaid.gov/fafsa-app/FSCsearch

Pages 9 and 10

• Updated all question number references throughout the help

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