FREE Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person, but today, I feel very foolish.
Today, I filled out the free FAFSA application at www.fafsa.ed.gov to apply for federal student aid so that I can take some classes this summer.
But first, I paid $79.99 for a third-party service to file my free federal student aid application for me.
I typed “FAFSA” into Google and clicked on FAFSA.com, the top result and a Sponsored Link.
I completed the form and was surprised when my credit card number was required to submit my application. I had to pay $79.99 to apply for student loans? I thought it was strange, but I haven’t applied for student loans in almost 10 years. In the end, I decided it must be legit. I put in my credit card number and hit submit.
That’s when I knew I had just paid $79.99 to Student Financial Aid Services Inc. to file my FAFSA form for me. I was using a third-party service NOT affiliated with the Department of Education.
I blame no one but myself. FAFSA stands for FREE Application for Federal Student Aid. I paid to file an application with FREE right in the name! The statement “We are not affiliated with the Dept. of Education” on the fake FAFSA site actually links to the REAL FAFSA site: www.fafsa.ed.gov.
Please don’t be a fool like me and pay to fill out your FAFSA.
Beware this fake FAFSA site.
Date of Birth Rejects, Errors, and Correction Procedure
For the past two years, I have used Turbo Tax to file my federal and state tax returns. Both years, my tax e-file was rejected due to
Error 0522: The date of birth you entered on this return does not match what the IRS has in its files for you. The IRS receives this information from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
I knew my name, date of birth, and Social Security number were listed correctly on my returns, so I knew this was a mistake. I followed the Age/Name/SSN Rejects, Errors, Correction Procedures on the IRS website.
Question: I filed electronically but my tax return was rejected. What do I do now?
Answer:
* Your next action depends on the reason your return was rejected.
* You should receive an explanation of why the return was rejected.
* If a mistake was made when entering a social security number, omitting a form or a name is misspelled, the errors can be corrected and the return can be sent again to the IRS.
* There are other errors that will cause you to have to file using a paper return.
* If you have further questions, you can call our Customer Service number at 800-829-1040.
* For general information about e-file, refer to Electronic Services.
I tried unsuccessfully to contact IRS Customer Service at 800-829-1040. I tried calling approximately once a week from May 2008 to November 2008 and never spoke to a real person. I only heard a recorded message that said, “We are too busy to take your call. Please try again on the next business day.”
My tax return e-file rejection was annoying, but I printed and mailed my tax returns via USPS. Life went on as usual…
Until today, I completed the FAFSA to apply for financial aid to continue my education. When I tried to submit my FAFSA, my electronic signature was rejected because FAFSA could not find a match for my personal information with the Social Security Administration (SSA).
I called the FAFSA help line at 800-433-3243. The nice woman assured me that my personal information was correct and that my FAFSA PIN was working, but a match for me could not be found with the Social Security Administration (SSA). She suggested I call the SSA at 800-772-1213.
The SSA phone system is very annoying, but after several minutes of repeating myself to a robot, I was able to speak to an agent. With a heavy foreign accent, he asked for my personal information and he told me the birth date I had given him and the birth date on record were not the same. In fact, the birth date they had on record appeared to be the same date my parents applied for a Social Security number for me…
The nice man told me to correct a date of birth on SSA records, fill out the SS5 SSA form.
While researching this article, I also realized using Turbo Tax to troubleshoot the problem instead of the IRS would have helped me correct my date of birth much sooner:
Verifying the taxpayer’s date of birth
Do the following:
1. Open your return in TurboTax Desktop or log in to TurboTax Online.
2. Select the Personal Info tab, and then select About You.
3. Press the Continue button to navigate to the Enter Your Personal Information screen.
4. Verify the taxpayer’s date of birth, name, and social security number.
* If this information is incorrect, update it, save your return, and then re-file. You will not be charged again to re-file the same return electronically.
* If this information is correct, call the Social Security Administration (SSA) at (800) 772-1213 and verify the information that they have on file.
* If the SSA has incorrect information, then submit a request to have the information changed. This process generally takes 4 to 6 weeks.
I am surprised this problem has not caused more trouble in the past, but I am happy I finally know how to correct the problem. Maybe next year I can e-file my taxes!
Filed under interests | Tags: 0522, administration, April 15, birth, birthday, date, date of birth, dob, e-file, efile, error, fafsa, federal, internal revenue service, IRS, reject, rejected, return, security, social, ssa, ssa5, state, Tax, taxes, Turbo, usps | Comment (0)