<p>I withdrew funds from my daughter's 529 account in 2012 to pay for her last semester of college, which was spring 2012. I just received her 1098-t, which shows 0 as the amount paid for tuition in 2012. I assume this means they included her spring 2012 tuition on the 2011 1098-t, and I didn't realize it. We do not qualify for the education tax credit, so that is not part of the issue. But I did pay her tuition in 2012 so don't what to get hit for taxes on the money I took out of the 529 account. How do I document the payments to satisfy the IRS since the 1098-t shows a big fat zero?</p>
<p>Do you have a bill or account statement from spring 2012 that shows amounts billed and amounts paid in 2012. What matters is when you paid them. That is better doc than the 1098T anyway. This assumes you didn’t use any of the spring 2012 expenses included on the 2011 1098T to cover 2011 529 withdrawals.</p>
<p>The same thing happened to me. I have letters from the university showing that the loans were paid on January 12, 2012. I know I signed up for the payment plan so I paid installments in 2011 and 2012.</p>
<p>D also graduated in 2012. I also paid for her books and I bought her a new computer in January 2012 as she had a fried motherboard right before her last semester. </p>
<p>I would love some advice on this also.</p>
<p>Deb, is your question in relation to covering 529 withdrawals too?</p>
<p>The basic rule is you have to pay an amount of qualified expenses in the same tax year that equals or exceeds 529 withdrawals in that tax year to avoid paying tax and penalties on the earnings portion of a 529 withdrawal. If you pay by credit card or have the funds withdrawn from an account it’s the date you click to authorize payment. If you drop a check in the mail, it’s the day you mailed it. If using a loan, it’s the date the loan was credited to the college account. The best documentation of these dates are college bills or account statements, credit card statements or receipts, checking account statements showing the withdrawal and cancelled checks.</p>
<p>I don’t believe computer purchases qualify unless the school requires every student to have their own computer.</p>
<p>Sorry annoyingdad, I was talking about the AOC. Should have read the post more carefully lol! It seems odd that another poster had their 1098 show 0 when they knew they paid for that semester.</p>
<p>I thought I read that you could deduct the price of a computer. This has been so confusing.</p>
<p>I do wonder if the 1098 being 0 is because after D graduated they erase her email and college account after graduation. I’m grasping at straws because I know I paid in 2012, her loans weren’t applied until 2012 and every other year we received the information for spring semester in the year she started that semester. I went back and looked and that seems to be the case.</p>
<p>this may seem like a silly question, but if we took out a loan in 2012 (first disbursement was Sept. 2012) to pay for my daughters expenses for the 2012-2013 year, Do we include this on our taxes? We actually have not started to make payments yet, not until the final disbursement is done which will be in about 1 month. </p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>Deb, the college would be required to keep her account numbers at least until a 1098T could be issued if required. They can’t just erase the account if there is still required irs reporting to be done.</p>
<p>The 2012 1098T would show 0 in box 1 if you paid all amounts for tuition/fees in December of 2011. It would show 0 in box 2 if all amounts were billed in December 2011, even if you paid in 2012. Colleges can choose to use either box. Using box 2 is a pain in that it makes it difficult to reconcile when a school bills in December but people pay in January. The 1098T is a poor document for documenting these cases. The source documents I mentioned are where you need to look. If you have source documents showing amounts paid in 2012, reduced by scholarship/grant amounts, you can claim the AOC based on them for 2012, provided you haven’t already claimed the AOC/Hope in 4 previous years.</p>
<p>Thanks annoyingdad, I appreciate it!</p>