The IRS Data Retrieval Tool that parents and students use to transfer tax information directly from the IRS to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is not currently working. Officials at the IRS and the Department of Education expect the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to be nonfunctional for “several weeks” as they work to resolve technical issues with their systems.
When completing the 2016-2017 FAFSA or the 2017-2018 FAFSA, applicants should manually enter the requested information from their 2015 federal tax returns. If selected for verification, students and the parents of dependent students may request a copy of their 2015 tax return transcript at www.irs.gov and then upload it to the School Servicing Center at www.sscwp.org when they complete the verification interview. Applicants who do not have a copy of their 2015 federal tax return may also request a copy of their 2015 tax return transcript in order to manually enter their tax data on the FAFSA when they apply. Tax return transcripts may be downloaded from the IRS website once the tax filer’s identity is confirmed or mailed to the tax filer within 5-10 days.