Will the FAFSA Contributor Be Allowed To Change Federal Tax Information?

No. If federal tax information (FTI) is pulled into the FAFSA using the FUTURE Act Direct Data Exchange (FA-DDX), the FAFSA contributor (student, spouse, or parent) will not be allowed to change those data elements:

• Tax year (e.g., award year 2024-25 is based on 2022 tax year information from the Internal Revenue Service, IRS);
• Tax filing status;
• Adjust gross income (AGI);
• Number of dependents;
• Income earned from work;
• Taxes paid;
• Education tax credits;
• Untaxed IRA distributions;
• Untaxed pension and annuity distributions;
• IRA deductions and payments;
• Tax exempt interest;
• Schedule C net profit/loss;
• Indicators for Schedules A, B, D, E, F, H; and
• IRS response code.

The Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) will contain two sets of fields--one set for FTI data and one set for manually entered data (e.g., when FTI cannot be pulled in or professional judgment (PJ) adjustments made by a financial aid administrator).

The following guidance was provided by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) on its FSATECH listserv:

"If a student or contributor provides consent and approval and we are able to use their FTI data, we will not allow them to manually provide or edit their tax data. The FUTURE Act doesn't allow FTI received from the IRS to be shared with or edited by the end user. If we are unable to retrieve or use their FTI, or if users decline to provide consent and approval, they will be prompted and required to manually provide tax information. For example, we may be unable to use their FTI if their tax return was filed with a spouse to which they are no longer married; we would require them to manually enter their individual tax data to separate it from their former spouse's. However, please keep in mind that if any user declines consent, whether or not we are able to use their FTI, the student will be ineligible for federal aid.

After a FAFSA is submitted and processed, an FAA may still submit a correction if the student can prove they experienced special circumstances that impacted their financial situation."