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Outage to impact FAFSA completion
July 20, 2021
Students, who have yet to complete the 2021-22 FAFSA, should do so as soon as possible. However, they may want to avoid at least a portion of the next two Sunday afternoons.
In a July 14 Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education announced that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) will be unavailable on Sunday, July 25 and Sunday, August 1 from 2-4 p.m. Eastern time. The outages are necessary for the IRS to complete critical system upgrades.
Although the DRT will be down, students and parents will be able access the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSAŽ) form (website and mobile app) and the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plan Request. The Department advises, however, if an action requires entry of federal tax information, the tax information will need to be provided manually (or, in the case of the IDR Plan Request, alternative documentation of income will need to be provided).