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OFFICE OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

FEDERAL VERIFICATION

When a student completes the FAFSA, the United States Department of Education may select the student for a process called verification. Verification is a requirement of the US Department of Education and is the process of confirming the data submitted on the FAFSA for consideration of the various Federal Title IV Funds, including the Federal Pell Grant, Federal SEOG Grant, Federal Work Study, and Federal Direct Loans.

If you are selected for the verification process, you will need to complete additional requirements such as the Verification Worksheet and provide your actual tax data on the FAFSA through the Direct Data Exchange* or by submitting an IRS Tax Return Transcript or you may be selected to verify your identity and statement of educational purpose.

Any parent(s)/stepparent, or independent student who did NOT file a tax return must obtain a Verification of Non-Filing Letter from the IRS and submit it to our office. A student will see the requirements listed on their Applicant Status Page if they have been selected for this process.

The Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange, FA-DDX, replaced the IRS Data Retrieval Tool for the 2024-2025 academic year.  The FA-DDX will transfer the federal tax information from the IRS directly onto the FAFSA form. However, there are certain situations when an individual will be unable to utilize the FA-DDX:

  • The contributor’s marital status has changed since filing their Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax return for the applicable tax year (e.g., parents filed a joint tax return but are separated, divorced, or remarried when filing the FAFSA);
  • The contributor filed taxes in a U.S. territory (Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands), commonwealth, or foreign country;
  • The contributor indicates on the online FAFSA that they have not filed a tax return but plan to;
  • The contributor is a victim of IRS tax-related identity theft;
  • The contributor did not provide consent to transfer federal tax information (FTI);
  • The contributor's identifiers do not match IRS records (IRS Response Code 203);
  • The FUTURE Act Direct Data Exchange (FA-DDX) transfer of FTI was incomplete (IRS Response Code 206; reason unknown);
  • The IRS was unable to confirm tax return data (IRS Response Code 212; reason unknown); and
  • IRS data is unavailable for an IRS system-related outage at the time the FAFSA is being completed.