The U.S. Department of Education randomly selects students who have completed the FAFSA for a process called verification. Therefore, if you are selected for verification, you were selected by the Department of Education, not PLNU, but you must verify the requested information by turning in paperwork to the Student Financial Services (SFS) office at PLNU.
If you're selected for verification:
- You may be required to verify information such as, but not limited to, income and taxes paid, number in household and in college, child support paid, SNAP, high school graduation, and identity.
- PLNU's Office of Student Financial Services will notify you if you have been selected for verification once you have filed your FAFSA.
- PLNU has partnered with Inceptia's "Verification Gateway" as an approved third-party servicer who assists PLNU in collecting all documents required to complete the process for any student selected by the Department of Education for verification.
- Some students may be contacted by PLNU's Office of Student Financial Services (SFS) directly to complete the verification process, such as students who have been selected for institutional verification or students federally selected for the custom or aggregate verification groups.
- If you are a returning PLNU undergraduate student, returning PLNU accelerated undergraduate student, or a PLNU graduate student, you are required to submit all requested forms and tax information (see below for recommendations) before you are awarded financial aid. If you are a new PLNU student, you are required to submit all requested forms and tax information (see below for recommendations) before aid can be disbursed to your account.
- If verification is not completed by the first day of school or by a specified deadline, any federal aid, state aid, and institutional need-based aid, may be removed from your awards.
If you are required to provide tax information:
To submit the required tax information, you must have already filed your taxes. IRS tax information is usually available to retrieve by either option listed below two weeks after filing electronically or eight weeks after mailing unless you owe taxes. If you owe taxes, your tax information may not be available until after May. Those who have not completed their taxes and have been selected for verification may experience a delay in processing financial aid.
IRS Data Retrieval Tool
For those who are selected for verification, SFS recommends that you use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool while completing your taxes. This allows you to link your FAFSA to the IRS so that you can avoid manually entering in all tax information and streamline the verification process. If you have already submitted your FAFSA (and you have filed your taxes), you should be able to log into fafsa.gov and link your FAFSA to the IRS.
Step-by-Step Guide for IRS Data Retrieval Tool
If the IRS Data Retrieval Tool is Not Available to You
If the IRS Data Retrieval Tool is not available to you, then you have another option to order a Tax Return Transcript from the IRS (Please note: Submitting a transcript may result in delayed financial processing). When requesting a Tax Return Transcript from the IRS, SFS recommends selecting the option that allows you to print the Tax Return Transcript immediately. Either way, you will need to send the information to PLNU.
Step-by-Step Guide for Requesting a Tax Return Transcript