<p>So D1, who graduated from college last spring (May, 2012) forgot to mention to me until this week that she got a 1098-T form in the mail. They had always come to our home in the past, but this year it went to her apartment. She graduated from a private college with tuition that was quite a bit higher than the scholarships she received that are shown on the 1098-T. So since I have been paying her tuition, in the past I have been entering her 1098-T info on my return in Turbotax, and the box 2 has always exceeded box 5. This year I have already filed my taxes (rushing to do so for D2's FA applications). D1 has not filed yet.</p>
<p>We have a couple of issues that I can see:
- The Box 5 has several thousand dollars in it from a merit aid scholarship she got from the college (I think of it as "$X" per year, but it is actually half of that each semester). So that "half" number is in box 5 for 2012.<br>
- Box 2 has nothing in it. The reason is because we paid all tuition & related expenses in December 2011. Reason for this was that bill was due 1/3/2012, and I had to take a 529 withdrawal to pay it. To get the 529 withdrawal in the same year the tuition was paid (to avoid explanations on THAT to the IRS), I did the 529 withdrawal and paid the college in December, 2011. So while we paid over $20,000 in tuition for spring semester 2012, it was actually received by the college in 2011.
- I have already filed my taxes. D1 was a dependent of my ex-H last year, and intended to take herself as a dependent this year (but has not filed yet). I don't want to re-file. :( But I think someone has to put this 1098-T info on their taxes... but I am not sure how to do that given the 2011 payment issue, or whether D1 can put it on her taxes anyway since I paid the tuition.</p>
<p>Thoughts from those of you with more expertise than I have? I did look at the 970 publication, but it wasn't clear to me what to do.</p>
<p>You can claim the AOC for only four tax years. If you claimed it for tax years 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, you cannot claim it in 2012.</p>
<p>In which case you do not have to do anything at all with the information on the 2012 1098t. Just stick it in your files and forget it.</p>
<p>If you had paid tuition and fee expenses for your daughter in 2012 instead of settling those bills late in 2011, it would be possible to use the amounts paid in 2012 to claim a Lifetime Learning deduction.</p>
<p>We never got the credit in the past… I was entering the 1098T on my returns, and AGI was too high. Needed to because I also had the 529 deductions (or so I thought…).</p>
<p>But won’t the IRS see this as her having income from the scholarship in 2012 (box 5) with no offsetting box 2 entry (zero)? Since they get the 1098-T as well.</p>
<p>Okay, I am going to answer my own question. Here is what Turbotax says about whether a scholarship is tax-free:</p>
<p>A scholarship or grant is tax-free if you meet the following qualifications:
•You are a candidate for a degree at a primary or secondary school or are pursuing a degree at a college or university, and
•You use the scholarship, grant, or fellowship to pay qualified education expenses.
•You attend an accredited educational institution that is authorized to provide a program that is acceptable for full credit toward a bachelor’s or higher degree or a program training to prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized field.</p>
<p>All of these are true, even though they did not bill us in 2012 for the expenses (they billed in 2011 and we paid then). I am going to enter to 1098-T information in Turbotax for her return, but tell it that she paid Dickinson the same amount as the scholarship in 2012. Even though it was paid in 2011, this essentially zeroes out the impact of the 1098-T (the scholarship equals the amount billed). Will just explain to the IRS later if they badger us. Sure hate this 1098-T form, it has caused me more tax headaches over the years…</p>
<p>The general consensus here is that the 1098t forms are a waste of paper.</p>
<p>The scholarship would have bred income for your daughter, not for you, so it probably would be reported this last semester on her taxes, not yours. Send it back to her, and let her read through Pub 970 and call het college with questions.</p>
<p>My bet is that she will find she doesn’t have to report anything at all because the scholarship awarded was not in excess of the remaining tuition and fees.</p>
<p>Ah, I am doing her taxes for her this one last time. Because she has to file in 3 states this year because she moved… I offered to do them this time as a favor, then she will fly “solo” next year. I already do something like a dozen returns for various other entities every year (personal, business, an estate I am executor for, a couple of small trusts). Hers are usually the easiest of the bunch. She is, of course, going to pay for the additional states I need to download from Turbotax. But getting off “free” this year other than that. Next year she can experience the joy herself.</p>
<p>Yes, Turbotax treats it as income and shows tax for it if I just enter it in her return as it is. I do not believe colleges will answer any questions on this, they would refer you to the IRS (my experience in the past). And the 970 isn’t really clear. Actually… if it is read literally, it makes it sound like it SHOULD be income because the amount “billed” is supposed to be in the same year as the scholarship. Yet clearly the IRS does not intend for this type of scholarship to be considered as income, as it was used for qualified purposes. And the college sent the bill (for spring semester) the year before, and I paid it the year before. Sigh…</p>
<p>Just a thought: If daughter is employed in 2012 and claiming herself and the AOC was never taken for her and she, in fact, had qualified tuition and fees expenses that were paid in 2012, she could take the credit on her return.</p>
<p>But the fees and tuition were paid in 2011 (check cashed by college in late December). And also all paid by me and/or her scholarship, so I do not feel right about having her take a credit for bills that I paid.</p>
<p>My logic on this at this point is that the scholarship was not applied by the college until 2012, so I think it is okay to tell Turbotax that the college was “paid” that amount in 2012 even if the 1098T does not match it. Although I did put that amount of billed tuition in box 2 on last year’s tax return, I am not going to refile. I could prove to the IRS over the years that her scholarships did not exceed tuition (did not come even close, covered about 1/3) in each school year, so I feel like I will just explain it later if I need to. I just need to force Turbotax to take the return (which I actually think I can do, I have done it in the past one year when it did not handle the 1098T correctly in her freshman year).</p>
<p>Box 2 is “billed” expenses, not “paid” expenses. The IRS doesn’t really care that much about the billed date. </p>
<p>Thus for AOC purposes, the payments you made were in 2011 and cannot count toward AOC in 2012. However, the Scholarship was awarded in 2012, and most likely credited to her account in 2012. </p>
<p>When you enter the information in Turbo Tax, or any other program, it is doing internal calculations. Those calculations are not reported to the IRS, so it doesn’t really matter how you get to your final answer. If the only payments made in 2012 were scholarships that were only used to pay tuition and fees, nothing should end up on anybody’s tax return for 2012 - there are no taxable scholarships, and no qualifying expenses paid in 2012.</p>
<p>The tuition was billed in 2011, but paying before January 3 - so if you had paid in on January 3, your daughter would be able to claim the AOC. It doesn’t really matter what the 1098-T says, because those numbers don’t really carry properly to your tax return, and don’t get reported on the tax return itself.</p>
<p>Yes, but if I enter what the 1098-T says into Turbotax, it increases my daughter’s federal tax burden by over $1,000. So while I agree “it doesn’t really matter what the 1098T says” in terms of what I should pay, tricking Turbotax into handling correctly is a pain. But I do think I can do it, and won’t end up in IRS trouble for it.</p>
<p>intparent…I asked the bursar at one of the schools my kids are attending about this very issue. Here is the response I received…</p>
<p>“There is no matching process between Box 5 on the 1098-T and the 1040 federal individual tax return. The 1098-T Form is specifically to determine whether a student (or parents) can take Education Tax Credits. This 1098-T configuration happens every time Box 2 charges are billed in December and financial aid posts in January. Virtually every school using Box 2 shows double tuition during the freshman year and none the senior year. The IRS expects it. It’s not a problem.”</p>
<p>Also, as far as the state returns you mentioned that you will be preparing for your daughter…no need to buy TT. Most states provide online access to file for free. Once you have your federal AGI, most times the state returns are a piece of cake. Try it…you can always buy TT later.</p>
<p>I would ignore this 1098t, and not even record the information at all. The scholarship was applied to bills still pending in 2012, and was only used to cover qualified expenses. </p>
<p>IF the scholarship was awarded in 2012, and was used to cover unqualified expenses (such as housing), then it would need to be reported as taxable income.</p>
<p>Call me old fashioned, but I do not place any tax information “in the cloud” if I can help it, which is what you are doing if you use the online version of tax preparation software. Having worked in info security for a number of years, I am not very trusting of the security of any data storage in the cloud. I have been working on her state returns this morning, and they are not simple because there are three of them… all with questions about where/when she earned the income, and wanting to tax as much of it as possible (of course). So the returns need to be done in a certain order, then accessed for numbers to go into the next return. Ick. Now I know why my dad was always so grumpy at tax time. At least we have the computer to help.</p>
<p>Pub 970 is clear about some things, for example that expenses must be paid in the tax year and 529 funds must be distributed in the same tax year as expenses are paid. The one thing it’s not clear on is when to count scholarships. I used to be a hard-liner on the dates that scholarships are credited, but I’ve come around to thinking with what appears to be the consensus on CC and other things I’ve read on the internet, that with scholarships the IRS doesn’t intend for taxpayers to be penalized if a school credits a scholarship in one year when the payments for the same term are made in a different year. The more common situation I think is when schools credit a scholarship in December but people pay the QEE bills in January. </p>
<p>1098T info is entered into a tax program on the parents’ return for the education credits and on the student’s return to see if anything is taxable. In neither case are the details of what is entered into the program sent to the IRS with the returns.</p>
<p>Most everyone agrees that the 1098T is useless when some things happen in December and others in January. The IRS must know this since billed amounts are allowed to be reported and since some schools credit scholarships in December, others in January. That’s why it’s necessary to keep bills, bursar account statements and receipts and records of payment.</p>
<p>Bottom line is, if it were me and with your scenario, I would not have my student report the scholarship for 2012 taxes provided I hadn’t used the December 2011 QEE expenses paid for the AOC in 2011 nor used them to cover QTP/Coverdell distributions in 2011.</p>
<p>I’ve read some posts here on CC about some who have had inquiries from the IRS when the 1098T doesn’t match the tax returns, but all I’ve read have said that when they sent in copies of the source doc for payments/scholarships that the IRS has been satisfied.</p>
<p>we were unaware of the existence of the 1098t until today. D already filed taxes not claiming grants as income. I am reading trying to find information on what we should have done and what we should do next. I thought my biggest problem was whether on not for us her parents to file a tax return or not. Now I think we must amend her income tax filing and the Fafsa but I am confused about what numbers to use since the 1098t includes her grant for the Spring 2013 semester since they went into her student account in December of 2012, even thought she did not get the financial aid refund until January 2013 what do I do with these figures split them between 2012 and 2013 or does it all become income for 2012? I posted an earlier question in a thread called taxes and financial aid but this thread seems to relate to the path I am now going down any advice is greatly appreciated.</p>