form 1098 T when Box 5 is more than Box 2

<p>I hope someone can guide me on this matter.</p>

<p>Child (dependent on my taxes) rec'd 1098 --</p>

<p>box 2 qualified expenses -- 12000</p>

<p>box 5 grants -- 16000</p>

<hr>

<p>ALL of the grant went to the school (for tuition and dorm) but dorm is not qualified expense.</p>

<p>I do not qualify for any tax credit.</p>

<p>I added 1000$ for books and supplies to box 2's amount.</p>

<p>Does daughter now file a 1040 to claim the 3000$ as unearned income?
I see form 8814 but that looks like interest and dividend income.</p>

<p>Worried that the IRS will come after daughter in the future over this even though there is no tax owed on the 3100. Should she file 1040 anyway to cover bases?</p>

<p>THANKS</p>

<p>Taxable scholarships/grants are treated as earned income for tax purposes and are reported on the same line of the tax returns as wages with SCH and the $ amount written out to the side. However, if your daughter does not have any other income and her income is below the required amount to file a return, then she is not required to file a return.</p>

<p>i dont have that SCH line. I just hope this doesnt create problems with IRS.</p>

<p>There *is *no SCH line. As I said above, the taxable scholarship/grant income goes in the same box as wages along with any wages (if there are any). And you write the words SCH and the amount of the income that is from taxable scholarships on the line in front of the income. If you use a software program it should do that for you.</p>

<p>For instance if someone had $4000 wages and $2000 taxable scholarship income, the amount in the wages box would be 6,000. The to the left of it you (or the computer program) would write SCH 2,000 .</p>

<p>If her total income including the taxable scholarships is below the filing cut off, she does not have to file. Not filing when you do not have to file does not cause problems with the IRS. If it worries you that much, you could always file. I don’t suppose the IRS will care.</p>