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Applying for financial aid can be a long, involved process.
You have to fill out the applications, provide financial information, and then wait to find out how much you’ve received.
Sometimes, this process can be halted by a request for Verification, and you need to provide your school or the Department of Education with an IRS Verification of Nonfiling Letter to proceed.
Here’s what you need to know about providing a non-filer statement for your financial aid application:
An IRS Verification of Nonfiling Letter, or a “non-filer statement”, provides proof from the IRS that no tax returns were filed under your name for a given year.
This statement shows that you have not filed a 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ form.
Receiving a non-filer statement does not mean that you weren’t required to file a tax return for that year, just that you didn’t file one.
The most common requests for non-filer tax statements from the IRS are for college students applying for financial aid. They are used to prove the income of independent students or students with dependent children.
Not all students applying for financial aid are required to submit a non-filer statement; only those selected for the Verification process need to submit a non-filer statement.
Verification is a process where a school’s financial aid office requests further information about a student’s finances and, if necessary, the finances of the student’s family. This process also can be requested by the Department of Education.
The Verification process helps to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information reported on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
You may be required to submit a variety of information as part of the Verification process, including a non-filer tax statement.
If you are selected by your college or the Department of Education for Verification, you may be required to submit a non-filer statement in order to fully qualify for financial aid.
However, not everyone selected for Verification will be required to submit a non-filer statement.
If you are asked to provide a non-filer statement, you must request one from the IRS in order to complete the financial aid process. Do not delay making this request; the longer you delay, the longer your financial aid approval will take. Taking too long could mean you miss out on qualifying for certain types of financial aid because you missed an important deadline.
Non-filer statements commonly are required by independent students or students with dependent children.
An independent student is not simply a student who plans to pay for college on their own. Many students financing their college educations are still required to include information on their parents’ finances with their financial aid applications.
Independent students meet one or more of the following criteria:
There are some unusual circumstances that may qualify you as an independent student even if you don’t meet the above criteria, such as:
These circumstances must be well-documented in order for you to potentially qualify for independent student status, and you may be asked to produce information such as death certificates, immigration paperwork, and legal filings.
You may also qualify for independent student status under other circumstances but must have a compelling case for why you cannot provide complete information on your parents when filling out your FAFSA.
Some of these circumstances may include:
In any of these situations, you will need to work closely with your school’s financial aid office to determine whether you can qualify as an independent student for the purpose of finances.
If you are the parent of a dependent child for whom you provide at least 50 percent of their financial needs, you may qualify as a student with dependent children for the purposes of financial aid.
Work with your college’s financial aid office to determine what you need to prove that you qualify for this status.
As we said earlier, not filing your taxes for a given year does not mean you weren’t required to file taxes, such as your income was too low. It only means that you didn’t file taxes for a specific tax year.
Some common situations where people do not file their taxes include:
If you are considered an heir to a deceased relative, you are still required to file tax returns for the last tax year your relative was alive.
Not filing these taxes can make you liable for any penalties and fees.
Being self-employed can leave you strapped to pay taxes at the end of a year, and you may be hesitant to file them for fear of the repercussions.
If you were an employee but expected a refund, you may not have filed your taxes due to lack of time or proper documentation. Knowing you don’t owe the IRS any money may have meant you didn’t really see the urgency to file.
Even if you’re living in another country, you may still have to file a tax return.
For many expatriates, they don’t fully understand what’s required of them in terms of filing their taxes even when they reside outside the United States.
There are three ways that students can request non-filer statements from the IRS: Online, by mail, and through your local taxpayer assistance center.
If you are a dependent student and your parents didn’t or don’t plan to file taxes for a given year, you may be required to submit a non-filer statement for them.
In these cases, they should request non-filer statements using their own identifying information, not yours, and you should send the completed form to your school’s financial aid office.
Your parent can fill out the request on the IRS website, request and fill out a Form 4506-T and send it to the IRS, or visit their local taxpayer assistance center.
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