Questions 44-45 (Veterans' Education Benefits)

44. Veterans' Education Benefits. Indicate if you will receive veterans' educational benefits from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. If you will not receive veterans' education benefits, skip to Question 46.

45. Type of veterans' education benefits. If you answered "Yes" to Question 44, indicate the type of benefits you will receive. Enter the correct number from the pull-down menu on the FAFSA on the Web application or in the box on the paper application.

Note that the financial aid administrator at your college will need you to provide information about the amount of education benefits you received.

Note Change: Worksheets A, B , and C (for students/spouses) no longer exist. Worksheet A was eliminated and the individual items from Worksheets B and C have been incorporated into Questions 46 and 47 below.

46. Student's 2008 Additional Financial Information. Enter the combined amounts for you and your spouse.

1. Education credits. Enter the total amount of Hope and Lifetime Learning Credits you (or your spouse) received from Form 1040—line 50 or 1040 A—line 31. The Hope and Lifetime Learning tax credits benefit students or parents who pay tuition and related expenses for attendance at least half time in a degree-granting program. These tax credits are subtracted directly from the total federal tax on a tax return. For more information about these tax credits, visit the IRS Web site at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf.



2. Child support payments. Enter any child support payments paid by you (or your spouse) because of divorce, separation, or as a result of a legal requirement. Do not include support for children in your household, as reported in the "number in household" question on the FAFSA (Question 96 for independent students). For purposes of the FAFSA, a child is a member of your household if you provide more than half of the child's support, whether the child lives with you or not.



3. Taxable earnings from need-based employment programs. Enter earnings from any need-based work programs including Federal Work-Study and need-based employment portions of fellowships and assistantships.



4. Student grants and other awards. Enter any student grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS in your AGI. This includes AmeriCorps benefits (awards, living allowances, and interest accrual payments), as well as grant and scholarship portions of fellowships and assistantships.



5. Combat Pay or Special Combat Pay. Enter only the amount that was taxable and included in your adjusted gross income. Do not enter untaxed combat pay reported on the W-2 (Box 12, Code Q).

47. Student's 2008 Untaxed Income. Enter the combined amounts for you and your spouse.

1. Payments to tax-deferred pension and savings plans. Enter amounts paid into tax-sheltered or deferred annuities (whether paid directly or withheld from earnings), including-but not limited to-amounts reported on the W-2 Form, in Boxes 12a through 12d, codes D, E, F, G, H, and S. You must include untaxed portions of 401(k) and 403(b) plans. Note that employer contributions to tax-deferred pension and savings plans should not be reported on the FAFSA as an untaxed benefit.



2. IRA and other plans. Enter the amount of IRA deductions and payments to self-employed Simplified Employee Pension (SEP), Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) and Keogh and other qualified plans. These plan payments can be found on IRS 1040-total of lines 28 + 32 or 1040A-line 17.



3. Child support received. Enter the amount of child support you received for all children during 2008. Do not include foster care or adoption payments.



4. Tax-exempt interest income. Enter the total amount of tax-exempt interest income you (and your spouse) earned in 2008, as reported on Form 1040-line 8b or 1040A-line 8b.



5. Untaxed portions of IRA distributions. This amount can be calculated from IRS Form 1040 (line 15a minus 15b) or 1040A (line 11a minus 11b). Exclude rollovers. If the result is a negative number, enter a zero here.



6. Untaxed portions of pensions. This amount can be calculated from IRS Form 1040 (line 16a minus 16b) or 1040A (line 12a minus 12b). Exclude rollovers. If the result is a negative number, enter a zero here.



7. Housing, food and other living allowances. Enter the amount of housing, food and other living allowances provided to you or your spouse. These allowances must be reported when they are part of a compensation package that some people, particularly clergy and military personnel, receive for their jobs. Include cash payments and cash value of benefits. If you received free room and board for a job that was not awarded as federal student aid, you must report the value of the room and board as untaxed income. (This category, "housing allowances," excludes rent subsidies for low-income housing.)



8. Veterans' noneducation benefits. Enter the total amount of veterans' noneducation benefits you received. Include Disability, Death Pension, Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC), and/or VA Educational Work-Study allowances.



9. Other untaxed income and benefits. Enter untaxed income or benefits not reported such as worker’s compensation or disability benefits.
   
   Don’t include student aid, earned income credit, additional child tax credit, welfare payments, untaxed Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income, Workforce Investment Act educational benefits, combat pay, benefits from flexible spending arrangements (e.g., cafeteria plans), foreign income exclusion or credit for federal tax on special fuels.



10. Money received. Enter the amount of any cash support you received from a friend or relative (other than your parents, if you are a dependent student). Cash support includes payments made on your behalf. For instance, if your aunt pays your rent or utility bill that you would otherwise be obligated to pay yourself, you must report those payments here.

• Student financial aid. Student aid received is already taken into account when a school packages your aid. However, work-study earnings must be reported as taxed income in the income questions of the Student's Income and Assets section.



• Food stamps and other programs. Benefits received from federal, state, or local governments from the following programs are not counted as untaxed income: the Food Stamp Program; Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC); Food Distribution Program; Commodity Supplemental Food Program; National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs; Summer Food Service Program; and Special Milk Program for Children.



• Dependent Assistance. You may be eligible to exclude a limited amount of benefits received for dependent care assistance if certain requirements are met. Generally, up to $5,000 of benefits may be excluded from an employee's gross income, or $2,500 for a married employee who files a separate return from his or her spouse. This exclusion cannot exceed the employee's (or his or her spouse's) earned income. (Note: Some states provide reimbursement for childcare expenses incurred by welfare recipients through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF]. You must report this on the application because you bill the state for the amount of childcare costs incurred while on welfare and are reimbursed on that basis.)



• Per capita payments to Native Americans. You should not report individual per capita payments received in 2008 from the Per Capita Act or the Distribution of Judgment Funds Act unless any individual payment exceeds $2,000. Thus, if an individual payment were $1,500, you would not report it on your application. However, if a payment were $2,500, you would report the amount that exceeds $2,000: $500.



• Heating/fuel assistance. Exclude from consideration as income or resources any payments or allowances received under the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). (Note: Payments under the LIHEAP are made through state programs that may have different names.)