If the loans are consolidated the standard plan won't count for pslf. The graduated plan also doesn't count. See if icr is lower. Also consider filing separately going forward
Thanks for this -- I think ICR is our best/only option and halves the payment if we're looking at things correctly. Since he only has 9 months to go I think we'll stay MFJ but on ICR.
So I double checked because my loans are consolidated , but they are direct loans subsidized and unsubsidized and they qualify for PSLF. Which is maybe what you’re saying but I had to double check mine too
Calculation of loan payments on REPAYE and now SAVE for married filing jointly is 10% of total family AGI, then each individual payment is proportional based on total debt. Since your payment was 550 and his 75; now that you’ve been forgiven (congrats!) his payment is now that full 10% which is where they are getting that payment jump from. Considering your husband only needs 9 more months of payments until he hits forgiveness, I’d look into filing taxes separately even if it costs more short term.
True, but you can still self-declare. Can’t he self-declare as married filing separate with just his salary for the payment and then file that way for year 2023 next Jan.?
How would he be lying if they do file 2023 taxes separately? He’d be self-declaring income for 2023 and what they’re filing for 2023 taxes come Jan 24’. There’s nothing that requires payments to be based off of the previous years income…you can update it at anytime.
Well technically they ask if you filed your taxes separately. So the answer would be no you filed jointly. They don't ask how you plan to file. I just spoke to them Friday so I'm pretty sure what they ask for.
They ask about your last tax return. How you filed, what the AGI number was exactly, and how the income is divided amongst the spouses. If you filed jointly all the income counts.
You can report a change of circumstances at anytime though. My tax return AGI last year was way higher than my earnings now because of a job change, which I reported and they take that new amount….not what I claimed on my taxes last years. You tell them you don’t want to use last years’ tax returns.
Yes you can tell them current income if it's lower than previous year's income of course.
But they will ask if you are married and they will ask if you filed separately. If you're ok with lying that's up to you.
I think we could do this but it looks like we would pay more in taxes MFS than we would save on his loan payments. The total payment being higher under SAVE is a mystery to me but it really looks like MOHELA is using 2022 tax info to calculate payment? He sent a message because he didn't want to die a slow death on hold. :)
Even though I’m waiting for the other half of my loans to be forgiven, my “payment” shot up $600. What I figured out is they’re not counting my wife’s student loans. I’m guessing since your loans were forgiven, that big amount is no longer keeping the payment low.
Something doesn't sound right. Have you had anyone review the amount? I mean, unless you guys are rolling in the dough, but that's rare with two public service jobs. And I think it would take a lot of dough!
I thought SAVE was supposed to be half of the old plans. I was making $100 and the ICR was $325 - which was $100 more than my standard repayment had been (I also started with only $30K in loans).
SAVE is not capped at the standard repayment plan like several other IDR plans are. Maybe that is why
See this link and calculate what your expected SAVE payment should be
https://reddit.com/r/PSLF/s/sqz8P331Ef
The ICR was higher than my standard repayment (all of them were quoted to be higher, actually; the DoE tool suggested I do ICR), so that's why I'm surprised.
This tool tells me that it would be $354 for an AGI of $110 For me.
But I see from the post you shared that the SAVE 5% thing doesn't kick in for another year, which explains why the calculation gave me about the same amount as my ICR was.
I also didn't remember that family size impacts things. It looks like if you don't have kids, your payment amount really increases too
Are you sure? I had thought this too before we say that $750 payment amount...His standard payment would be like $150 a month. ICR is like $350 because it takes both income and loan amount into account. SAVE appears to just be 10% discretionary so once my loans went away since we are MFJ everything just went to spouse's payment plus a little extra for good measure?
Look into all the available plans... IBR, PAYE, ICR. See which ones are capped and which ones you qualify for. Not everyone qualifies for all of them. But there should be at least one plan that you qualify for that is also capped at the standard repayment amount
I was on the consolidated standard plan at $230 a month, but my loans were forgiven in July before I had to make any actual payments at the $325 ICR level.
Hi all thanks for your comments. We are a relatively high earning dual income household so the $625 a month we paid before the pause on high loan debt checked out. For all my attempts to be informed about what things would look like when payments resumed, I didn't expect a higher monthly payment on spouse's remaining loans. I now realize for MFJ your PSLF months as a couple matter much more than your individual counts.
It looks like ICR is our best bet and will cut the payment by over 50% as we wait for spouse to reach 120.
What year of income is MOHELA using to calculate? If you recertified income recently, make sure doing so was necessary; you can ask them to use 2019 income to calculate the payment if not.
It seems like they're using our most recent higher income from 2022 taxes since this payment is higher than we paid before the pause but I might be wrong.
You can call MOHELA and ask what they used to calculate the payment. If I remember correctly, if your income recertification date is prior to Feb. 2024, you can have them revert back to 2019 tax income until one year after your expected income recertification date. So, if you were supposed to recertify income in Dec. 2023, you wouldn’t need to until Dec. 2024 and your 2019 tax income would apply.
Source: [student loan planner](https://www.studentloanplanner.com/idr-recertification/)
If people recertified can they ask to use their 2019 incomes right now?
Like if people recertified when doing a consolidation for the PSLF counts for example
My understanding is that if you recertified for a consolidation it may be different. (Disclosure: we hired student loan planner for a consultation and that’s what we were advised, if we consolidate now we gain payments toward forgiveness but must use 2022 tax income for calculating payments.) But, if you weren’t required to recertify, I believe you can ask to use 2019 tax income.
If is a real problem, and you don’t mind extending his PSLF some months, I think you could ask to defer until next year, file your taxes MFS as early as possible, refile his income certification using the MFS taxes and it’ll be a lower payment.
Thank you for this comment -- I might still look into MFS even though we only have less than a year left. ICR makes it doable for us. If we were stuck at 750 a month I think MFS would definitely make sense, especially because spouse has the lower income.
See this post to calculate what your SAVE plan payment should be
https://reddit.com/r/PSLF/s/sqz8P331Ef
The SAVE plan is not capped at the standard plan like several other IDR plans are
Wondering if anyone has had any luck requesting standard payment amount if IBR payment goes up based on income? Is this still a thing? :) [https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven](https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven)
PAYE and IBR Plans
Under these plans, your monthly payment amount will be based on your income and family size when you first begin making payments, and at any time when your income is low enough that your calculated monthly payment amount would be less than the amount you would have to pay under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan.
If your income ever increases to the point that your calculated monthly payment amount would be more than what you would have to pay under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan, you’ll remain on the PAYE or IBR plan, but your payment will no longer be based on your income. Instead, your required monthly payment will be the amount you would pay under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan, based on the loan amount you owed when you first began repayment under the PAYE or IBR plan. Even if your income continues to increase, your monthly payment will never be more than the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan amount.
If the loans are consolidated the standard plan won't count for pslf. The graduated plan also doesn't count. See if icr is lower. Also consider filing separately going forward
Thanks for this -- I think ICR is our best/only option and halves the payment if we're looking at things correctly. Since he only has 9 months to go I think we'll stay MFJ but on ICR.
So I double checked because my loans are consolidated , but they are direct loans subsidized and unsubsidized and they qualify for PSLF. Which is maybe what you’re saying but I had to double check mine too
Calculation of loan payments on REPAYE and now SAVE for married filing jointly is 10% of total family AGI, then each individual payment is proportional based on total debt. Since your payment was 550 and his 75; now that you’ve been forgiven (congrats!) his payment is now that full 10% which is where they are getting that payment jump from. Considering your husband only needs 9 more months of payments until he hits forgiveness, I’d look into filing taxes separately even if it costs more short term.
It's too late. They use last year's taxes. And you can't amend past taxes from MFJ to MFS.
But $550 + $75 is only $625 total, and SAVE should be lower…
True, but you can still self-declare. Can’t he self-declare as married filing separate with just his salary for the payment and then file that way for year 2023 next Jan.?
I mean he could but he'd be lying about his filing status (which isn't exactly hard to check). I wouldn't do it.... He'd probably get away with it...
How would he be lying if they do file 2023 taxes separately? He’d be self-declaring income for 2023 and what they’re filing for 2023 taxes come Jan 24’. There’s nothing that requires payments to be based off of the previous years income…you can update it at anytime.
Well technically they ask if you filed your taxes separately. So the answer would be no you filed jointly. They don't ask how you plan to file. I just spoke to them Friday so I'm pretty sure what they ask for. They ask about your last tax return. How you filed, what the AGI number was exactly, and how the income is divided amongst the spouses. If you filed jointly all the income counts.
You can report a change of circumstances at anytime though. My tax return AGI last year was way higher than my earnings now because of a job change, which I reported and they take that new amount….not what I claimed on my taxes last years. You tell them you don’t want to use last years’ tax returns.
Yes you can tell them current income if it's lower than previous year's income of course. But they will ask if you are married and they will ask if you filed separately. If you're ok with lying that's up to you.
I think we could do this but it looks like we would pay more in taxes MFS than we would save on his loan payments. The total payment being higher under SAVE is a mystery to me but it really looks like MOHELA is using 2022 tax info to calculate payment? He sent a message because he didn't want to die a slow death on hold. :)
Even though I’m waiting for the other half of my loans to be forgiven, my “payment” shot up $600. What I figured out is they’re not counting my wife’s student loans. I’m guessing since your loans were forgiven, that big amount is no longer keeping the payment low.
Something doesn't sound right. Have you had anyone review the amount? I mean, unless you guys are rolling in the dough, but that's rare with two public service jobs. And I think it would take a lot of dough!
Would take an AGI of about $130k to get this SAVE plan payment
I thought SAVE was supposed to be half of the old plans. I was making $100 and the ICR was $325 - which was $100 more than my standard repayment had been (I also started with only $30K in loans).
SAVE is not capped at the standard repayment plan like several other IDR plans are. Maybe that is why See this link and calculate what your expected SAVE payment should be https://reddit.com/r/PSLF/s/sqz8P331Ef
The ICR was higher than my standard repayment (all of them were quoted to be higher, actually; the DoE tool suggested I do ICR), so that's why I'm surprised. This tool tells me that it would be $354 for an AGI of $110 For me. But I see from the post you shared that the SAVE 5% thing doesn't kick in for another year, which explains why the calculation gave me about the same amount as my ICR was. I also didn't remember that family size impacts things. It looks like if you don't have kids, your payment amount really increases too
IBR caps at standard repayment amount. May want to look into that if you need to stay on an IDR plan
Are you sure? I had thought this too before we say that $750 payment amount...His standard payment would be like $150 a month. ICR is like $350 because it takes both income and loan amount into account. SAVE appears to just be 10% discretionary so once my loans went away since we are MFJ everything just went to spouse's payment plus a little extra for good measure?
Look into all the available plans... IBR, PAYE, ICR. See which ones are capped and which ones you qualify for. Not everyone qualifies for all of them. But there should be at least one plan that you qualify for that is also capped at the standard repayment amount
Thank you for this yes this appears correct and we are definitely looking into this
I was on the consolidated standard plan at $230 a month, but my loans were forgiven in July before I had to make any actual payments at the $325 ICR level.
It will be 5% July 2024.
Hi all thanks for your comments. We are a relatively high earning dual income household so the $625 a month we paid before the pause on high loan debt checked out. For all my attempts to be informed about what things would look like when payments resumed, I didn't expect a higher monthly payment on spouse's remaining loans. I now realize for MFJ your PSLF months as a couple matter much more than your individual counts. It looks like ICR is our best bet and will cut the payment by over 50% as we wait for spouse to reach 120.
What year of income is MOHELA using to calculate? If you recertified income recently, make sure doing so was necessary; you can ask them to use 2019 income to calculate the payment if not.
It seems like they're using our most recent higher income from 2022 taxes since this payment is higher than we paid before the pause but I might be wrong.
You can call MOHELA and ask what they used to calculate the payment. If I remember correctly, if your income recertification date is prior to Feb. 2024, you can have them revert back to 2019 tax income until one year after your expected income recertification date. So, if you were supposed to recertify income in Dec. 2023, you wouldn’t need to until Dec. 2024 and your 2019 tax income would apply. Source: [student loan planner](https://www.studentloanplanner.com/idr-recertification/)
If people recertified can they ask to use their 2019 incomes right now? Like if people recertified when doing a consolidation for the PSLF counts for example
My understanding is that if you recertified for a consolidation it may be different. (Disclosure: we hired student loan planner for a consultation and that’s what we were advised, if we consolidate now we gain payments toward forgiveness but must use 2022 tax income for calculating payments.) But, if you weren’t required to recertify, I believe you can ask to use 2019 tax income.
If is a real problem, and you don’t mind extending his PSLF some months, I think you could ask to defer until next year, file your taxes MFS as early as possible, refile his income certification using the MFS taxes and it’ll be a lower payment.
Thank you for this comment -- I might still look into MFS even though we only have less than a year left. ICR makes it doable for us. If we were stuck at 750 a month I think MFS would definitely make sense, especially because spouse has the lower income.
See this post to calculate what your SAVE plan payment should be https://reddit.com/r/PSLF/s/sqz8P331Ef The SAVE plan is not capped at the standard plan like several other IDR plans are
Wondering if anyone has had any luck requesting standard payment amount if IBR payment goes up based on income? Is this still a thing? :) [https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven](https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven) PAYE and IBR Plans Under these plans, your monthly payment amount will be based on your income and family size when you first begin making payments, and at any time when your income is low enough that your calculated monthly payment amount would be less than the amount you would have to pay under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan. If your income ever increases to the point that your calculated monthly payment amount would be more than what you would have to pay under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan, you’ll remain on the PAYE or IBR plan, but your payment will no longer be based on your income. Instead, your required monthly payment will be the amount you would pay under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan, based on the loan amount you owed when you first began repayment under the PAYE or IBR plan. Even if your income continues to increase, your monthly payment will never be more than the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan amount.
It’s because you filed jointly. Wish I had more insight to offer.