What Year?
With the change to prior-prior tax year reporting on the FAFSA and CSS PROFILE, it seems that keeping track of what data dates pertain to what is becoming increasingly complicated. This table summarizes the relevant years or dates for each school year.
| School Year | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAFSA/ PROFILE Income Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Assets As Of October | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| AOTC Tax Year* | 2018, 2019 | 2019, 2020 | 2020, 2021 | 2021, 2022 | 2022, 2023 | 2023, 2024 | 2024, 2025 |
* Assets are as of the filing date, which may be as early as October or into the following year depending on the school’s filing date.
** Remember that the AOTC can only be claimed for four tax years, so families should decide whether the fall of freshman year is better than spring of senior year for claiming. With the income limit of $160,000 (married filing joint) or $80,000 (single), some families might not be eligible every year.
Parents may find that different strategies are needed during different years. For example, a family with a student beginning college in fall of 2020 might reduce pre-tax retirement contributions this year (to increase taxes, which are deducted from income on the FAFSA and therefore reduce EFC) and then maximize contributions beginning in 2021 to reduce AGI for AOTC claiming purposes.
See The FAFSA Formula Explained for more.