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NASFAA Requesting ED Resolution of Several IRS DRT Flag Issues

By David Futrell, AskRegs Manager

NASFAA is currently aware of several issues related to IRS Request Flags and IRS Data Field Flags resulting from the use of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (IRS DRT). The following issues have previously been reported by some schools to CPS TECH, and NASFAA is seeking guidance from the Department of Education (ED) on how it intends to resolve them. Please stay tuned to NASFAA’s Today’s News and AskRegs Knowledgebase for further guidance on how to process such aid applications. In the meantime, for contradictory transactions, NASFAA can only recommend taking the most conservative approach, such as collecting a tax transcript instead of relying on the IRS DRT data to complete verification.

IRS Request Flags Changing from “02” to “03”: Earlier ISIR transactions with IRS Request Flag “02” are now coming through with Request Flag “03” even though the student/parent only changed a non-DRT related data element on the current transaction. In one school example, the only data element that changed on the current transaction is the school/school code. In another example, the only reason for the new transaction is that the parent later revisited the FAFSA to use DRT for the parent data without changing the student’s DRT data or other data. This is an issue when the school must load and process aid on the current transaction which now has a “03” for a reason unrelated to using the DRT.

IRS Data Field Flags Changing to “0”: On some of the above-mentioned transactions, the IRS Data Field Flags are changing to “0” (IRS data not transferred) for all DRT data elements. DRT was used; it was just used on an earlier transaction and not the current one.

IRS Request Flag Changing from “07” (amended tax return) to “02”: The IRS DRT data are from the original tax return the tax filer submitted to the IRS. If a tax return was amended either by the tax filer (1040X) or internally by the IRS (minor corrections), the “07” should never change but it is.

 

Publication Date: 2/23/2018


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