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Verification Q&As updated by Department of Education

By Catherine Mueller

February 01, 2018

The answers you have been looking for may be in an updated document released yesterday by the Department of Education (ED) – that is if you have had questions about acceptable documentation for verification.

In a Jan. 31, 2018 Electronic Announcement, the ED's Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) said it has updated the answers to two questions in the verification portion of the program integrity website.

The two questions with updated answers are:

• DOC-Q2. What documentation must be collected from an applicant who was selected for verification if the applicant and/or spouse, or parent(s) filed an amended tax return with the IRS?
• DOC-Q16. May an institution require an individual who has been granted a tax filing extension by the IRS to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (IRS DRT) or obtain an IRS Tax Return Transcript before completing verification? Must the tax return information be submitted to the institution after the income tax return has been filed?

The updated answers provide guidance to schools on what documentation they must request from students and notes whether any exceptions may apply.