Hi College Confidential friends--
This is a question I'm posting on behalf of my friend. He was updating his 2015 FAFSA when he ran into an error.
On the FAFSA he filed January 2014, he put his parents' tax expense as a zero (instead of 1,000), because he read the wrong line on their tax return. He can't edit it now, because that form has passed. Now, he was updating information on his FAFSA from January 2015 with the correct tax expenses, but the FAFSA site denied his update because they noticed that the tax expenses changed too drastically and found it suspicious.
He is worried that due to his error in 2014, it will count as fraud. He has been freaking out all week about it, and I'm not sure what to do. He didn't do it on purpose, it was just an honest mistake. So, is this fraud? How can he go about it if charged? And if not, why is it not fraud and what are next steps he can take to getting his FAFSA updated so he can file for 2016?
If anything isn't clear, please let me know and I'll update ASAP. Thank you!!
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