Help with FAFSA Verification

<p>My fafsa was selected for verfication and I don't know what to do with one part. It says to list my Grant/Scholarship Aid. On the description it says, "A student reports only the amount of grants and scholarships received that is taxable income." At first I thought it was zero, but then I just recently found form 1098-T and called my school and they basically told me to subtract line 1 from 5. </p>

<p>line 1 says Payments received for qualified tuition and related expenses - 10,652.40
line 5 says Scholarships or grants - 21,960.46</p>

<p>so I would have to put 11,308.06 for the grant scholarship aid?</p>

<p>Also I checked my SAR and for Student's Grant and Scholarship Aid Reported in AGI, I put $0 because form 1098-T wasn't used for my parent's taxes and I never had a job so I didn't file taxes. </p>

<p>So I am very confused. Someone help me.</p>

<p>I have a pell grant, 21st century scholarship, and 21st century covenant and this pays for everything. and also both semesters I got a refund of about $1500. </p>

<p>I’m just scared of doing something wrong and risk losing everything.</p>

<p>If you had $11k+ in taxable scholarships/grants, you should have filed a tax return. It doesn’t matter that you did not have a job, you had taxable income that was higher than the standard deduction for a dependent claimed on someone else’s taxes, so you need to file a return. </p>

<p>Scholarships/grants in excess of qualified expenses (tuition/fees/required books) are taxable income to you. If you are claimed as a dependent by your parents, you have a standard deduction of $5800. If taxable income is greater than $5800, you are required to file a tax return. (if you are not claimed as a dependent by your parents, you would have a personal exemption of $3700 in addition to the standard deduction).</p>

<p>The school is probably asking for this information because you have not filed taxes. You will probably have to file taxes before you can receive aid. You will probably owe some tax money (and penalties and interest as you are very late), but it should not hurt your FA.</p>

<p>swimcatsmom, Wait a minute… The 10,652.40 was for the fall semester only which was 2011 and the other half was for next semester, so why do I have to pay taxes on 11,000+ when the total refunds I got after I paid everything was only $3000. I am just so confused.</p>

<p>Also, if you are correct, how would I file taxes now? Should I complete the verification thing and then file taxes because the verification deadline for me is june 21st.</p>

<p>The 1098T should only be for tax year 2011. It’s not clear from what you’ve said what was paid when. Was any of the $21,960 in grants/scholarships used to cover room and board? If so, that amount plus what was refunded would be taxable income to you. Room and board are not qualified education expenses.</p>

<p>yes, it was used for room and board and a meal plan. So what should I do now? On the verification which is due june 21st, it says under the student personal financial documentation “I am submitting my 2011 IRS tax return documentation” and the the right of that has 4 options: imported irs data, signed tax return, irs tax transcript, or non-filer form. I was initially going to put nin-filer form, but now that I found out that I have to pay taxes on that, I don’t know what do do.</p>

<p>here is the link: <a href=“Indiana University Bloomington”>Indiana University Bloomington;
It is on the last page</p>

<p>I would call the school again and ask them how to proceed. Explain you didn’t realize some of your grants/scholarships are taxable. Can your parents assist you in figuring out how to file taxes? You should only need to file 1040EZ. Section 1 of IRS publication 970 has the information about taxable scholarships.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf[/url]”>http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The amount of refund you got does not matter, it is what the money was used to pay for. So if your scholarships/grants for the semester were $21,960 and your tuition and fees were $10,652 but you got a $3,000 refund, what was the other $8308 used for? If it was used for room and board, room and board is not a qualified expense for tax purposes, so that would make it taxable income. The fact that the money never was actually paid into your hands does not matter, it is what the money was used for that matters.</p>

<p>Schools often won’t give tax advice, but do talk to your parents or find someone who can help you sort out your taxes.</p>

<p>(was the $21,960 the scholarships for the fall semester? If part of it was for the spring and went toward spring tuition and fees, that would be a different situation)</p>

<p>Swimcatsmom, the $21,960 scholarships/grants was for the fall semester AND spring semester.</p>

<p>If that is the case, makes a HUGE difference. To calculate how much, if any, was taxable, you need to take the scholarship/grant total received deduct from it any tuition/fees/required books purchased with that scholarship for the fall and for the Spring semester. Only that amount is taxable. If it is below the cut off for tax filing, you don’t need to file a return. Do not deduct room and board or other expenses.</p>

<p>But your post is a little confusing. If the scholarship was $21,960 in total for the school year, and tuition and fees were $21,304 (2*10562), that leaves $656. But you say your room and board was also covered and *and *you got $3,000 in refunds. Something doesn’t add up.</p>

<p>Also, box 7 on form 1098-T is checked and it says, “Check if the amount in box 1 or 2 includes amounts for an academic period beginning January-March 2012” . Maybe that information is useful?</p>