FAFSA question, reporting scholarships

Paying for College
1

<p>My kids are sophomores so this is the first time that we have had to answer the scholarship question on the FAFSA and I am confused. We imported our data from our tax returns, but then the form asks to list grants and scholarship money reported to the IRS (this is in the parent portion since our kids are dependents and don't file taxes) -</p>

<p>"Student grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS in your parents' adjusted gross income. Includes AmeriCorps benefits (awards, living allowances, and interest accrual payments), as well as grant and scholarship portions of fellowships and assistantships"</p>

<p>We received 1098T forms. Do we just put the raw number of scholarships for both kids in that box? or is it figured into our education credit and if we got the credit we don't put anything. They got generous aid so I don't want to list a giant number in error and send our score off. The FAFSA help desk is not clear about the scholarship info?!
Thanks</p>

2

<p>

Scholarship money earned by the student would be reported by them on the tax form if necessary and whether they had to report it is based on the amount. The only taxable amount of a grant or scholarship would be any amount that exceeded tuition and book expenses (i.e does not include room/board or other fees)</p>

<p>For example, if a student received $20,000 but tuition was $23,000 then there is no taxable amount. if they received $20,000 and the tuition and book expenses was $18,000 they are taxed on the $2,000 difference.</p>

<p>This is also what you would list under the student financial information for FAFSA. Again, if the aid exceeded the tuition and book expenses that difference needs to be reported on FAFSA, otherwise you can put $0.</p>

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<p>Yay! that makes sense. the 1098 makes it clear that they were billed more than they received. Thanks a lot!</p>