Why are they asking this information?

The FAFSA asks about your parent’s / parents’ additional financial information as a way to gather any relevant earnings or payments that would not show up on a Federal tax return.

How to answer this question / fill out this section

This question about your parent/parents’ additional financial information is broken into five categories:

• Child support: Check this box if your parent/parents paid child support to a dependent for whom they do not have primary custody. (This dependent may or may not also reside with you). This may be court ordered as a result of a divorce or separation. Then enter the amount paid.
• Taxable earnings from need-based employment programs: Check the box if they received earnings such as Federal Work-study and need-based employment portions of fellowships and assistantships. Then enter the amount received.
• College grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS: Check the box if they received outside scholarship/grant sources. This is not a scholarship offer which a college will offer to them, whether merit or need-based. They can find this figure on their tax return as a deduction as part of their Adjusted Gross Income. Then enter the amount received.
• Combat pay or special combat pay: Check the box if your parent/parents have listed this figure on their tax return as a deduction as part of their Adjusted Gross Income. They should not report untaxed combat pay, which would be reported on their W-2. Enter the amount received.
• Cooperative education program earnings: Check the box if your parent/parents earned money from cooperative education programs (also known as co-ops) while working in a experiential learning environment outside of a classroom. Then enter the amount received.