Changes to the Data Retrieval Tool that you need to know about

September 12, 2017

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators created an outline of changes that will be happening to the FAFSA this year. Not all of these changes are crucial for you to know, so Pam Perry, our Director of Financial Planning and Assistance, has pulled out the information she thinks you’ll need:

In a May 3, 2017 Electronic Announcement, Federal Student Aid informed the community that in an effort to address privacy and security concerns raised by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) related to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (IRS DRT), the IRS and Federal Student Aid (FSA) agreed to implement a solution that will reinstate the use of the IRS DRT beginning with the 2018–19 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) cycle.

Functionality prior to the IRS DRT shutdown
Prior to the shutdown of the IRS DRT on March 3, 2017, most online FAFSA applicants and parents were provided the option to link to an IRS website and, once authenticated, could view their tax return information and transfer it back into the FAFSA form. Transferred tax return information was displayed to the applicant or parent and labeled with “Transferred from the IRS” next to the data entry fields on the FAFSA form.

2018–19 changes to the FAFSA IRS DRT user experience

  • The applicant and their parent’s information will now be encrypted for enhanced security.
  • They will still have the option to link the application to the IRS to pull in their tax information.
    • However, once information is transferred in, the applicant and their parent(s) won’t be able to see or edit the information pulled in—the form will just display “Transferred from the IRS.”
    • The “Corrections” section of the full report offers detailed guidance.
  • Changes to how IRA and pension rollovers and income earned from work are reported in the online FAFSA form, since applicants and their parents won’t be able to see detailed information. Read this section in the full post to get more details.

Corrections

Corrections to these fields that cannot be edited will need to be input by a financial aid administrator.

Examples of instances when a financial aid administrator might be required to make corrections:

  1. The tax filer did not report an IRA or pension rollover properly.
  2. It has been determined that the tax filer should not have been allowed to use the IRS DRT.
  3. The tax filer had filed an amended tax return.