Why do programs asking for your income as a qualifying agent always ask for Gross instead of Net?

Question

I understand we get income taxes back, but if you don’t have a dependent you get a very small part of what you paid in. Last year, I paid $7k in taxes yet only got a little over $2k back. So when I fill out application for, let’s say college financial aid, they want me to count that $5k as if it was money that I had to spend. Why is this?

In: Economics

Answer 1

They’re not operating under the assumption that you have that money floating around to spend. They’re using that because almost everyone knows how much they make pre-tax.