7 things you must know about the FAFSA

Beginning every January, millions of American families complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is crucial for any student hoping to receive need-based financial aid.

If you must tackle the FAFSA this winter, here are seven things you need to know:

You won't qualify for financial aid unless you submit the FAFSA.

Without completing the FAFSA, you will not qualify for need-based grants and scholarships and it's unlikely you would qualify for state aid either. Most schools also rely on the FAFSA to determine if applicants qualify for their own in-house pots of money.

Without submitting the FAFSA, your child also won't qualify for a campus work-study job. In addition, you and your teenager would not be eligible to borrow through the federal college loan programs.

Don't assume you won't get financial aid.

A student aid analysis released in 2011 concluded that 92 percent of families who did not submit the FAFSA cited one or more of these following three reasons for why they failed to submit the FAFSA:

• Family believed they don't qualify for aid.
• The families didn't need financial aid.
• Families didn't want to take on debt.

The study, however, determined that about a third of the students who did not submit a financial aid form would have qualified for a federal grant. Filing the FAFSA also does not obligate parents or students to borrow for college.

File early for state aid.

If you have a chance at need-based financial aid, it's best to submit the FAFSA as early as possible. One reason why you should hustle is because some states, such as California, Michigan, Maryland and Rhode Island, have financial aid deadlines in early March or even sooner. Other states such as Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Vermont and Washington dole out money for eligible students on a first-come, first-served basis.

File early for some federal aid.

While filing early is not required to qualify for the federal Pell Grant, the biggest college grant program, it is highly recommended that families file the FAFSA early to potentially capture lesser-known federal grant called the FSEOG or Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant.

The FSEOG grants range from $100 to $4,000 a year and are earmarked for low-income students. Because the money will run out quickly at some campuses, families with a chance at this money should file the FAFSA now.

Use estimated tax information.

To meet early financial-aid deadlines, you may need to estimate your taxes when completing the FAFSA. When you are ready to input your actual tax figures, you can simply use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. Using the tool will allow the government to add income tax figures directly onto your FAFSA.

Get free help.

To help you tackle the FAFSA, you can download a free copy of the 2015-2016 edition of Filing the FAFSA: The Edvisors Guidei to Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

It easy to create a FAFSA account.

You will need to access the application online. All you need to create an account is the student's name, date of birth and Social Security number.