What does a college NPC want as "income after taxes" ?

[KarenNC]

If a college's NPC asks for "income after taxes," are they looking for a specific line item from the 1040 (like the "taxable income" line) or do I just multiply take-home pay by number of paychecks plus any bonuses (no investments other than retirement)? We do have things like HSA and retirement taken out pre-tax. 

 

Most of the ones I've seen have asked for AGI or the like, but Appalachian State has this wording. It may be an obvious answer, but it has me a bit confused, so thanks for bearing with me as I figure out a new facet of this educational journey. :)

[FaithManor]

IF you work off last year's taxes and use your final taxable income or in the case of a calculator that wants to know how much you paid in federal taxes and use that amount you should be good to go. If you know there will be a pay raise or bonuses in the future so your adjusted income will be higher, you can do some estimating so you get a fairly good guess on the NPC.

 

We used our numbers from our 1040 from 2014 for our 2015 college search for boy #2 and to be safe dh added 10%. Of course he didn't get a 10% raise, though he did receive one, just not that high, but it served us pretty well in having an idea what would be affordable and what would not.

[KarenNC]

Thanks!

[JanetC]

Look for a little i icon, some NPCs will specify exactly which lines on your tax return to add up.

[KarenNC]

Look for a little i icon, some NPCs will specify exactly which lines on your tax return to add up.

 

Unfortunately, this one doesn't.

[MerryAtHope]

I've come across that too, and never know if they want the "AGI" or another number. I tend to "assume" AGI, but I'm not sure if that's right. I also am never sure about the question of how much taxes you pay--because I'm self-employed, I have a chunk to pay but it's not "income tax."