IRS program aims to speed up FAFSA application process

Tax season has been running on a delayed schedule in 2013 compared to past years as wrangling on Capitol Hill between Senate Republicans and Democrats over a resolution to the dreaded "fiscal cliff" pushed the start-date for filing to January 30 – roughly two weeks later than in past years. As a result, many students are getting a later start on filling out their Free Application For Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) than in past years as much of the information needed for this form is also used to file for state and federal taxes.

Roughly three years ago, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made a new feature widely available to students who are looking to make financial aid negotiation an easier undertaking. The IRS Data Retrieval Tool was designed to make transferring the information from a student's online tax filing onto their FAFSA application a quick and easy process.

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) created the FAFSA as a form that will only need to be filled out once in order to apply for any type of federal financial aid, such as Stafford and Perkins loans as well as federal work-study programs. Many states also rely on the FAFSA when determining how much money to offer students for a school year.

This year, however, since tax season was on a delayed schedule, the IRS Data Retrieval Tool wasn't implemented online until February 3, which was too late for early applicants who were looking to get a head start on applying for financial aid.

The DOE recommends that students apply for financial aid as early as possible to improve their odds of getting available funds before the limited resources are all allotted. This tool can help speed up the already delayed process.