One of the questions on the FAFSA that can be a bit confusing is the Taxes You Paid question. This is not what was withheld from your paycheck toward paying your taxes, but instead is the amount you are obligated to pay based on your Adjusted Gross Income minus your deductions. Click here to look up your 2015 taxes, based on your TAXABLE INCOME (after you subtract your exemption and standard/itemized deductions).
Need a general outline of how to figure your Taxable Income? Most of us don’t have our 2015 taxes done at this early date, but you can estimate your 2015 financial information to complete your FAFSA by using your actually filed 2014 tax forms and roughing-in the 2015 numbers (use your end-of-year pay stubs, December 2014 bank statements, and other December or year-end investment information). To estimate your taxable income, take your Adjusted Gross Income (use your last year’s taxes and adjust for this year’s numbers to see what that might be), subtract your exemption deductions (the number of exemptions in your household x the listed $ on your tax form) and subtract either your estimated itemized deductions (use last year’s numbers, unless something has changed significantly) OR use this link to figure your standard deductions for 2015.
Once you have your estimated Taxable Income, you can look up your projected 2015 Tax To Pay here. The Federal Government has until January 22 to finalize and publish the Tax Tables for 2015, but for the FAFSA you may use last year’s tables to estimate for this year. Questions? Contact Mrs. W in the C&CC — or go to the How To Pay For College In A Single Day event out at LCC on Saturday, January 16, 2016 — OR come to the drop-in FAFSA evening on Thursday, February 8th or Jan 22nd from 3:15-8:00 pm. (We encourage you to get your FAFSA done AS SOON AS POSSIBLE… Close and fast is “miles-better” than accurate and slow!)