The 2027-28 FAFSA now makes things a little easier for those who file an income tax return with both the IRS and a U.S. territory.
In an October 28 update to a previous Electronic Announcement, Federal Student Aid (FSA) announced that it implemented a solution allowing dual tax filers to indicate they have filed (or will file) an income tax return from Puerto Rico or another U.S. territory.
When answering “Yes” to the dual filer question, applicants will be prompted to manually enter their combined adjusted gross income and combined income taxes paid. If federal tax information (FTI) was transferred through the Direct Data Exchange (DDX), the manually entered financial information for dual tax filers will override the FTI.
Financial aid administrators (FAAs) will no longer need to set the professional judgement flag on the ISIR since the FAFSA Processing System will automatically use the combined financial information when calculating the Student Aid Index (SAI) and Federal Pell Grant eligibility.
The professional judgment flag may still need to be set when updating or correcting a FAFSA if the applicant or contributor did not correctly indicate they’re a dual filer on the initial transaction, or if usable FTI was obtained from the IRS but the FAA must override the FTI with manually entered financial information to perform a professional judgment.
More information on how the combined financial information is used in the SAI calculation can be found in the Student Aid Index and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide under “List of Tables Used in SAI Calculation.”
