FAFSA® New Information
Process Changes: The 2016–17 FAFSA will be the final FAFSA to launch on January 1. Students who need to complete the2016–17 FAFSA will be able to access and submit the form anytime between Jan. 1, 2016, and June 30,2017. Beginning with the 2017–18 FAFSA, the start date will move from January 1 to October 1 of the previous year. This means that students who complete the 2017–18 FAFSA will be able to submit the form anytime between Oct. 1, 2016, and June 30, 2018.
Income Information: Currently, FAFSA applicants provide income information from the “prior tax year.” For example, 2016–17 applicants must report 2015 income information. Beginning with the 2017–18 FAFSA, applicants will provide income information from one tax year earlier—the “prior-prior” year. This means that the 2017–18 FAFSA will collect 2015 income information. As a result of this change, more students and families will be able to complete their FAFSA using income information imported electronically from the IRS, using our IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT), rather than submitting applications with income estimates that may need correcting, or worse, waiting until the previous year’s tax return has been filed.
FAFSA forms will be available October 1, 2017 at www.fafsa.gov
