Understanding Your Composite Score: 3 Key Drivers
August 22, 2024
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has been calculating an institution’s Composite Score as part of its annual assessment of Financial Responsibility. However, new Financial...
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Why is ED Requiring Fiscal Year to Match Tax Year?
May 29, 2024
The U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Dear Colleague Letter issued May 16, 2024 (Implementation of Regulations Related to Financial Responsibility, Administrative Capability, Certification Procedures, and...
Recent Articles
What to Expect from the New Gainful Employment Rule
August 1, 2022
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has sought to establish a definition of Gainful Employment (GE) for over a decade, and in more recent years, we’ve seen regulatory whiplash as priorities and opinions change. An initial attempt to establish a rule by the Obama administration was thrown out in a legal...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) has been effective for more than four years now, but it is still making new impacts to the corporate tax environment. One provision that businesses must navigate and implement — for now, at least — is the capitalization and amortization of...
The last thing an institution wants to hear while undergoing an audit is, “We’ve identified some processes that aren’t compliant with Title IV rules.” In a perfect world, a compliance audit comes and goes swiftly and without any findings. But in the real world, one where regulations change regularly and it’s...
Chances are you haven’t seen your auditor around the office for quite a while — and some people might be just fine with that. After all, audits normally don’t rank highly on a financial aid professional’s list of favorite annual activities. However, the past two-plus years of pandemic gave rise to...
Facing Audit Phobia, Part I: The Latest Trends
July 12, 2022
If we’re playing a word association game, then when a postsecondary education institution participating in Title IV aid programs hears the word “audit,” it’s likely to prompt a response of “confusion,” “anxiety” or even “fear.” It’s understandable, but frequently unfounded. In fact, a compliance audit can be a good thing for...
ED Releases New HEERF Quarterly Reporting Form
July 6, 2022
If your institution is still utilizing Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) grants, take note: the Department of Education (ED) just released a new Quarterly Reporting Form (QRF) that includes some substantial changes from previous versions. The new form is to be used beginning with Q2 2022 reports and is due...
Employee Retention Tax Credit: Don’t Miss a Step
June 20, 2022
By now, you have likely heard about the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) program, a government incentive for businesses to retain employees throughout the Covid 19 pandemic. It was created by the CARES Act and extended and altered by successive pieces of coronavirus relief legislation. The ERTC has provided massive tax...
In March 2022, the Department of Education (ED) reached consensus with non-federal negotiators on a crucial regulation for proprietary institutions: the 90/10 rule. Broadly, the 90/10 rule requires proprietary institutions to receive at least 10% of their revenue from nonfederal educational assistance sources every fiscal year. Because consensus was reached, the...