College & Career Training in Alaska

As we are about to descend upon FAFSA season, a question commonly asked is where does your Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend(PFD) go on your FAFSA?  Well, it all depends if you filed taxes or not, and who filed them.

If you filed your 2019 tax return, you will either be able to use the IRS Data-Retrieval Tool (IRS-DRT) or manually enter your parents’ and/or your tax information.  The IRS-DRT method does require the use of your Financial Student Aid ID (FSAID). This method is strongly recommended because it securely connects your FAFSA to the IRS database and transfers applicable tax information for you.  If you are selected for FAFSA verification, having used the IRS-DRT eases the verification process.

If you are a dependent student (most students straight out of high school are dependent students), it’s possible that the parents claimed the student on their taxes, which would include both the student’s and parent’s Alaska PFD.  The PFD would be included into the adjusted gross income for the parents, which can be found on IRS Form 1040-Line 7.  This question is one that the IRS-DRT will import for you.  If you manually enter your tax information, you put your adjusted gross income in the parent portion of the FAFSA under question 85.

If you are an independent student, or if you are a dependent student and filed your own taxes, your PFD is most likely calculated in your adjusted gross income.  If you don’t use the IRS-DRT, you will be able to manually input your adjusted gross income under question 36.

The FAFSA does ask “Did you file a Schedule? Select No if you did not file a Schedule 1 or only filed a Schedule 1 to report: unemployment compensation, educator expenses, IRA deduction, student loan interest deduction, Alaska Permanent Fund dividend, or virtual currency.  Click here for more information.”  There are many reasons why you file a Schedule 1, so we do recommend that you click the “here” button to make sure you understand why would check Yes or No.

If you have any questions about how to complete your FAFSA, please feel free to contact the ACPE Success Center at 907-269-7980 or at ACPESuccessCenter@alaska.gov.