Prior-Prior Year
Starting with the 2017-2018 FAFSA, families will now use tax data from two years ago. For 2017-2018, FAFSA families will once again use 2015 tax data. This is referred to as “Prior-Prior” Year data because it uses tax data from two years before the academic year. For 2018-2019 FAFSA, families will use 2016 tax data; for 2019-2020, families will use 2017 tax data, etc.
Along with this change, the Department of Education is changing when the FAFSA is available for families to complete. Beginning with the 2017-2018 year, the FAFSA will become available for families to complete on October 1st of each year. Therefore, families can begin applying for aid (using accurate completed tax data) approximately one year prior to the academic year in question.
All families are encouraged to use the Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) to link their taxes to their FAFSA.