• Saves you time
• Awards will be more accurate
• May reduce the likelihood that your FAFSA will be selected for verification

Applicants must have a valid Social Security Number and FSA ID to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. Students and parents must use the tool separately for their respective income tax returns. 

 If you meet any of the criteria below, you will not be able to utilize the IRS DRT and, therefore, must manually enter your tax return information.

• The student/parent is married and either the student/parent or spouse filed as 'Married Filing Separately'
• The student/parent is married, and either the student/parent or spouse filed as 'Head of Household'
• Applicants whose marital status has changed as of January 1 of tax filing year
• Tax filer files a foreign return in lieu of federal return
• Tax filer files a return for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in lieu of federal return
• Tax filer recently filed federal return (see below for timing)
• Applicants who are neither eligible nor required to file a federal tax return

If your FAFSA is selected for federal verification, the requirement for verifying the tax return information can be satisfied by transferring the tax return information directly to your FAFSA using the IRS DRT. Please note that once transferred, any changes made to this information will result in the need for you to submit a copy of your federal tax return transcript. Please do not send us your tax transcripts unless you have been selected for verification and you are unable to use the IRS DRT. Read more regarding the federal verification process.

To update your financial information using the IRS DRT process, follow the steps below. The IRS DRT can be used as early as three weeks after filing taxes electronically or eight weeks if filing paper.

1. Log in to FAFSA on the Web
2. Select ‘Make FAFSA Corrections’
3. Enter student’s PIN and FAFSA password (created at time of original filing)
4. Select the ‘Financial Information’ tab (parent information is displayed first if student is dependent).
5. Select ‘Already Completed’ (if not already selected) from the drop-down box for the question ‘For 2013, have your parents completed their IRS income tax return or another tax return?’
6. Answer the filter questions.
7. If your parent can answer ‘No’ to all of the questions, he/she must select which parent they are and then enter his/her FSA PIN to authorize accessing the IRS data.
8. Select the ‘LINK TO IRS’ button to access the IRS DRT. You will be taken to the irs.gov site, which will display your demographic information.
9. Select 'Submit' to access your tax information.
10. Select the 'Transfer My Tax Information' box and then the 'Transfer Now' button to transfer the tax information to the FAFSA. If an applicant or parent agrees to transfer his/her data back into the FAFSA form, the applicant or parent will not be able to view the transferred income and tax information on the FAFSA web pages. Instead of the transferred information, applicants and parents will see the words “Transferred from the IRS” in the data entry fields throughout the online FAFSA form and on the Student Aid Report (SAR).
11. Repeat steps 5 – 10 for 'Student Tax Information' (if a tax filer).
12. Continue selecting the ‘Next’ arrow at the bottom of the page, reviewing the information displayed as you go, until you reach the ‘Sign & Submit’ page.
13. The student will need to enter his/her pin and agree to the 'Terms of Agreement'. If a dependent student, your parent must do the same.
14. Next, select the 'Submit my FAFSA now' button to complete the process.