What is Verification?

What is verification? Verification is a requirement of the U.S. Department of Education and is the process of confirming information submitted on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Averett will be comparing your FAFSA with your 2023 IRS Federal Tax Transcript and other requested documentation to complete your verification.

Required Documentation

Required documentation varies depending on the reason(s) your application was selected. Typically, if your FAFSA is selected for verification, you and your parent(s) must complete the following:

  • Verification Worksheet
  • Contributors who manually entered tax year information when completing your FAFSA:
    • If your parent(s) have filed federal taxes, they need to submit a signed (handwritten signature) copy of their federal tax return, or submit an IRS Tax Return Transcript
    • If you have filed federal taxes, you need to submit a signed (handwritten signature) copy of your federal tax return, or submit an IRS Tax Return Transcript
    • If you and/or your parent(s) earned income from any source, submit a copy of each Form W-2 received or if no W-2, a list of the source(s) and total earnings.
    • If your parent(s) did not and were not required to file a tax return, your parent(s) will need to complete the Parent Non-Tax Filer’s Statement.
    • You may be contacted if additional documentation is required.

Verification must be completed by the last day of your enrollment during the school year for which your application has been selected.  In some instances, a student who is no longer enrolled may be eligible for a late disbursement of federal aid.  If eligible the student is notified.

IRS Tax Return Transcript Request

Tax filers who do not have a copy of their tax return may request a Tax Return Transcript ( do NOT request an Account Transcript) from the IRS in one of three ways:

  1. The IRS website by selecting “Get Transcript ONLINE” or “Get Transcript by MAIL”
  2. The IRS automated phone transcript service at 1-800-908-9946
  3. Complete and submit Form 4506T-EZ or Form 4506-T to the IRS by mail

Note:For electronic filers, an IRS Tax Return Transcript may be requested within 2-3 weeks after the return has been accepted by the IRS. The IRS Tax Return Transcript may take up to eight weeks to be available for those who file paper tax returns.

Please submit these documents within the next 14 days in order to determine your financial aid and not jeopardize losing funds that could be available. This review must be conducted under the Federal Financial Aid Program rules (34 CFR, Part 668). If there are differences between your application information and the verification documents, we will make the corrections and send the required changes electronically to the federal student aid processor to have your information reprocessed.

Once the process of verification is completed and your financial award eligibility is determined you will be notified of how to proceed. Your notification will be sent to the email addresses you list on your FAFSA and your Averett email address.

NOTE: students should only complete federal verification documents if they have been selected for verification and have been notified by the Office of Financial Aid. Students completing verification requirements for the 2025-26academic year will need to verify 2023 income tax information.

If during verification it is determined that false or misleading information was provided willfully, the application would be referred to the U. S. Department of Education.