<p>ok, here goes... My daughter is a full time college kid who worked 4 part time jobs in 2010 and gets fin aid that covers her tuition and leaves about 4,000.00 for books, living expenses, etc. Which tax form will she need to file 1040EZ or 1040A ? She lives on her own and commutes to school. She made just over $8000.00 in wages and received $10,807.00 in PELL, TAP, etc. of which almost $6000.00 went directly to the school for tuition. She also took out the Stafford loan to help with expenses per her advisor's advice on how low the interest rates are for those. I do not file taxes as I am disabled, so she can not be claimed as a dependant on anyone else's taxes. Does she claim the whole 10,807 or just what's left after tuition is paid to the school? Thank you for any help you may have !!!</p>
<p>On her taxes she only reports the taxable part of the scholarships/grants. Scholarships/grants used for qualified eduction expenses (basically tuition, fees, and required books) are not taxable. Scholarships/grants used for non qualified expenses (such as room and board, travel expenses) are taxable. So the part of the scholarships/grants she needs to report on taxes is the part she used for non qualified expenses such as room and board, travel etc.</p>
<p>I’m guessing she can probably file a 1040A, assuming there is nothing too complicated about her taxes. The best thing to do is use one of the freefile tax programs. The IRS web site has links to them.
[Free</a> File: Do Your Federal Taxes for Free](<a href=“Free File: Do your Federal Taxes for Free | Internal Revenue Service”>Free File: Do your Federal Taxes for Free | Internal Revenue Service)</p>
<p>I would go for a well known name. We tried to use a less well known brand one year and it completely messed up the treatment of the taxable scholarships. Luckily I knew enough to know it was messed up so ended up not submitting it and redoing it with one of the better known programs.</p>
<p>Thank You so much swimcatsmom !!!</p>
<p>Alright, so i went to the H&R Block site and did the free return… Not sure if I did it correctly…( I did not submit) BUT it showed she OWED ??? How can a college kid with 4 part time jobs and a full time student that grossed under 8,100.00 owe money to the damn government ??? That’s ridiculous if it’s due to her Pell and Tap… the school gave her that amount to cover her schooling according to our EFC and now the government is going to penalize her for qualifying for it by making her owe taxes ?! That’s just insane… please tell me I did something wrong here…</p>
<p>My older son is a senior in college, and he owes taxes every year :</p>
<p>Yes, she would owe at least several hundred in taxes because her $8K income alone is in excess of the standard deduction and the excess grant money is taxable income…the government giveth and then taketh away, but it’s still better to have those grants! Did you add in her required books/equipment and fees?</p>
<p>I would be surprised if she still owed much - I would think the witholding from her work would offset what was owed for the scholarship $ but perhaps this has something to do with the witholding amount she set since these are part time jobs?</p>
<p>Income spread over 4 part-time jobs wouldn’t provide sufficient witholding for an additional 50% of outside income unless she elected to have additional amounts witheld from her pay…which she may want to consider doing for 2011 if she can’t set aside some of her refund money when it comes in.</p>
<p>According to my calculations from H & R Block, she owes almost $1,000.00 between federal and state !!! :(</p>