Student Financial Services

Verification of FAFSA Information

When you submit the FAFSA on the Web, you may be randomly selected by the Federal processor for a process called “verification.” This means the Department of Education requires our office to determine the accuracy of the information provided on your FAFSA on the Web application. If you receive this notification, please complete the following steps in compliance with Federal guidelines.

  1. Complete the Federal Verification Worksheet for the appropriate year. Be sure to fill in the form as thoroughly and accurately as possible to avoid any delays. The form must be signed by the student, spouse (if student is legally married) and at least one parent. The email you received from us will have included which Verification Group you fit in. If you are unsure of the group, please complete the worksheet for group V5.
    Please note: Electronic signatures are NOT acceptable on this form.
  2. Submit a SIGNED copy of your tax return (for the year listed on the worksheet) along with any schedules filed and accompanying W-2’s and/or 1099’s. Dependent students must also submit a SIGNED copy of their parent(s) tax return, schedules filed and accompanying W-2’s or 1099s.
  3. Submit the worksheet and all accompanying documentation to us at your earliest convenience as follows: Wittenberg Financial Aid Document Portal

2024-25 Verification Worksheets

Prior Year Worksheets

Frequently Asked Questions

The majority of FAFSA’s are randomly selected for verification although the a few may be flagged due to an error made while filling out the form. Regardless of the reason, approximately one in three FAFSAs are chosen and federal aid cannot be awarded to those students by any school until the verification process has been completed.

 

Our staff will compare the information provided on the FAFSA with the data on your tax return and accompanying tax documents. If there are discrepancies, we will update your FAFSA data to match the information on your tax documents. We will submit these corrections to the federal government electronically via our software system. Once the government has approved the changes made, they will send us an updated FAFSA for download and you will receive notification from the Dept. of Education that a correction has been made to your FAFSA. You do not have to take any further action once you have submitted the requested paperwork. Once we receive the updated FAFSA, we will complete and send you an official financial aid offer.

In short, you will not receive any federal or state or institutional need-based financial aid. Once a student is selected for verification, federal law requires the school to obtain complete verification paperwork before awarding any state or federal aid including Pell Grants, Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, Ohio College Opportunity Grants, Subsidized and Unsubsidized Federal Direct Student Loans.

Current students will not receive a final financial aid award which includes institutional, state and federal need-based aid, until verification has been completed.

If you were accepted to more than one school, you will likely receive many Verification Worksheets. Each school’s worksheet may look slightly different, but each should ask for essentially the same information, along with the same accompanying documents. You should complete verification for all schools that you are considering attending in order to receive an accurate, comparable and timely financial aid offer to the institution you wish to attend.

An individual who is required to file an IRS income tax return and has been granted a filing extension by the IRS beyond the automatic six-month extension, must provide:

  • A signed statement listing the sources of any 2022 income and the amount of income from each source;
  • A copy of the IRS's approval of an extension beyond the automatic six-month extension for tax year 2022;  
  • A copy of IRS Form W–2 for each source of employment income received or an equivalent document for tax year 2022; and  
  • If self-employed, a signed statement certifying the amount of the individual’s Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) and the U.S. income tax paid for tax year 2022.   

 

An individual who filed an amended IRS income tax return for tax year 2022 must provide a signed copy of the 2022 IRS Form 1040X, “Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return,” that was filed with the IRS or documentation from the IRS that include the change(s) made by the IRS, in addition to one of the following:

  • Updated income and tax information from the IRS on an ISIR record with all tax information from the original tax return;  
  • A 2022 IRS Tax Return Transcript (that will only include information from the original tax return and does not have to be signed), or any other IRS tax transcript(s) that includes all of the income and tax information required to be verified; or
  • A signed copy of the 2022 IRS Form 1040 and the applicable schedules that were filed with the IRS.

An individual who was the victim of IRS tax-related identity theft must provide:  

  • A Tax Return DataBase View (TRDBV) transcript obtained from the IRS or, if unable to obtain a TRDBV, an equivalent document provided by the IRS or a copy of the signed 2022 income tax return and applicable schedules the individual filed with the IRS; and
  • A statement signed and dated by the tax filer indicating that he or she was a victim of IRS tax-related identity theft and that the IRS is aware of the tax-related identity theft.

 

A tax filer who filed an income tax return with a tax authority other than the IRS may provide a signed copy of his or her income tax return that was filed with the relevant tax authority. However, if we question the accuracy of the information on the signed copy of the income tax return, the tax filer must provide us with a copy of the tax account information issued by the relevant tax authority before verification can be completed.

The documentation can be submitted to us via electronic upload via our supporting document portal: Wittenberg Financial Aid Document Portal

If you are having issues with the upload process, you may also email the documents to our office at financial-aid@5585y.com but be aware this option may delay the process.

 

If you have any questions, please contact us via our general office email financial-aid@5585y.com, or call our main line at 937-327-7321. We are here to guide you through the process and help you build a plan to finance your education here at Wittenberg University. Tiger Up!

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