Legal Issue

[Amad]

I just received a form from the Academy requesting a copy of my 2008 taxes. That seemed sort of shady to me, seeing as how my financial aid approval only involves myself and the federal government. I've been reading, and there are some legal gray areas here, some people even claim that I have a legal right to refuse this request.

Anyone have any insight as so why a college would request a full copy of a tax return? I'm inclined to deny them unless it means me not being able to attend.

[dabu]

whoa, thats weird. I have no idea how it works, but yeah, push back and see what they say...

You might have better luck posting this in the AAU discussion forums, but we're on break so not a lot of traffic right now...

[rburke]

dont worry, the school is required to do this at random. They will use this info to see if you reported the right amount for your income that year etc. This happened to me last spring, its no big deal.


and btw did you ever get a grade for environments class the school has still not posted one for me its been almost 3 months now.

[Amad]

Yeah give them a call and talk to the dept. head. They sent me to the animation dept head, and I was told that the grades had just come in. I don't know why it's not there for you. I got a B- in the class, but can't find Pryce to discuss what I could improve on (summatime and all)

Anyway thanks guys. I'll probably fight that because it's a pretty shitty reason to pry like that in my opinion.

[alsoknownasOTiS]

I've also had this happend to me as well, they do it to justify the aid that you are getting. When you fill out the FAFSA you're supposed to put that info in there, now if your like me, which is lazy, you hadn't filled when you filled out your FAFSA so you didn't fill that info in...its more of a C.Y.A. thing....they have all the info anyway, so its not as if you'll really be hiding a lot from them...the aid you get from the gov't and the forms it takes to get that aid are all kinda wrapped up together anyways...i wouldn't sweat it...

And yea...i never got my grade for the evironment class either...i'll be pissed if it hinders me from getting my diploma...although...wtf...its just a fancy piece of paper anyway...

[Amad]

That's partly why it's so weird... they want mine and my spouses income. Like Patrick said, they already have that information. I still don't understand what AAU has to do with the money that the federal government is loaning to me. If there were discrepancies in my income information, or some tax issue, the IRS and FAFSA entities would have called me on it months ago.

Whatever, anything more is a rant. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

BTW, I heard that AAU only does diplomas once a year in May. I don't remember where I heard this, but I was told that I wouldn't get one until then. Could be wrong.

[Amad]

Update**

Apparently this is a federal issue, where a federal agent will randomly select about 40 percent of students at a given school to include this information. The school not only has the right to force you to submit this information to their offices, but can force your spouse's personal information as well, including social security numbers. They call it verification. In my 8 years at various colleges I've never heard of this, but apparently it's legitimately legal.

I guess I'll just trust that our private financials don't sit on the fax machine or out in the open office at 180 for hours on end. Awesome.

[Hans Schrijvers]

Hmm well, I share your feelings of reluctance to share your financial data with the school, but even if your info remains there on the fax machine or on someone's desk for an extended period of time, I doubt anyone there can put your face to it, anyone will care what's on the paperwork or that they will be able to abuse it. Honestly, that'd be overestimating the capabilities of the average Academy paperpusher.

[Sixcolors]

I was wondering why I got one of those in my packet one year. I went down the line and filled in a bunch of zeros, since I was a full-time, non-working student. Take that, IRS.