OU Scholarship and Tax 1098-T

Have few questions related to Scholarship. Based on prior year information please share your input (student or parent).

A. When can we expect OU will provide this form? Is it sent via email or will be available in Ozone and we need to download?

B. Which items in the scholarship are included in the form? These are the amounts we got for the first semester.

  1. Tuition Fees for 1st semester
  2. OK Academic Scholars program: $2750
  3. National Merit Cash Stipend: $625
  4. Housing Scholarship: Forgot, either $2100 or $4200
  5. Technology & Book allowance Cash: $2000

Not seeking tax advice. But want to understand how and what the 1098-T form will be (since this is the first time I need to deal with this). Thanks a lot.

Great questions @GoldenRock ! I like to know the answers too!
I can tell you that #4 is $2100 because it paid by the semester and the 1098-T should also list any other outside scholarships too.

The form will be available through Ozone (if you look on the money tab you’ll see where you or your child can get it.)

@oneundecided Thanks for that info. Which items in the list above will be reflected in that form? Is it all the items?

@GoldenRock I have no clue-- I’m a first year parent too.

The 1098-T has amounts for “Amounts billed for qualified tuition and related expenses” and for “Scholarships and grants”. We paid taxes on the difference of these two. For my NM freshman last year that difference was roughly a semester of housing, the $2000 technology scholarship, and other outside scholarships.

Scholarships and grants included all the scholarships shown on the bursar’s statement.

1098-T forms are up on Ozone now.

@3scoutsmom Thanks for the update.

@STEMFamily Ironic this year I started volunteering for IRS VITA program. So I hope I will learn how to connect all the dots and will get to know how to file the tax for this form. It is interesting that dorm and meals are not qualified expenses and that is why in the list of billed items it is omitted, though you get scholarship for dorm $2100 (which becomes income and probably taxable).

BTW, When is the due date to pay Spring 2017 fees? Similar to Fall 2016, we need to pay from our pocket for around $3.5k after all scholarship.

@3scoutsmom @GoldenRock @STEMFamily
looking at the 1098 T… is it missing the $625 stipend… will that come on a W2 instead?

and I believe the spring bill is due Feb 21.

I don’t think any documentation will show up for the Nat’l Merit money.

Just a heads up - if you are doing your own taxes, you will probably end up doing your child’s and yours at the same time. The reason for this - your child’s scholarship income, less some deductions, will get taxed at the parent(s)’ marginal rate. There’s a worksheet for the student’s return that starts with the parents’ AGI (or maybe taxable, don’t remember exactly), and then adds on the scholarship assistance that isn’t a qualified expense (non-tuition/fees/books), and works through deductions to get to the student’s tax owed. It’s not a 5 minute exercise.

I showed all this to a CPA last year, and he about stroked out. He couldn’t believe that the scholly money fell under ‘unearned income’ but after he looked into it he said, ‘yeah, according to Uncle Sam it is’.

Our 1098-T seems to be missing both the $625 and the $2000 textbook and technology stipend (I compared it to the National Merit Scholarship package PDF that I had saved).

I checked my bank account and those 2 were distributed separately in the form of a check (I see that I deposited it to our bank account) vs posted to his bursar account at OU.
I’m assuming a separate 1099 (1098?) might be coming for those 2 amounts.

Thanks for all your posts. Here is my interpretation for some of the items mentioned in all your posts (I may be wrong).

For us, out of the 6 components of the pkg, 4 of them are in 1098-T (Tuition, OK Academic, NMS and Housing scholarship). So only the 1 time text book $2k and Study abroad (which is not eligible for this year) is not there.

So mostly some of you did not get the $625 in 1098-T because you did not submit thru bursar office (we did submit to bursar office). I forgot what my D did for the text book check. May be she directly deposited in the bank (than routing thru bursar office).

It makes sense why your CPA told it is unearned income because student do not have to work to ‘earn’ that money. But still student need to file if their income is above tax filing threshold but it will get parents rate only if it exceeds the kiddie tax amount (mostly it will fall since $2.1k housing + $2k text book $625k NMS will exceed the limit). Though student may end up filing tax, the exemption for the student will be claimed in parents tax return (and not in student tax return).

  1. How to download the 1098-T from Ozone? Though it displays (and I can take a screen shot), prefer to download but could not see any viable option in the GUI interface of ozone.
  2. If a student is NMS, is there is any limit to get free tuition in a semester or year? For example, flat rate allows only up to 30 credits for a year. So if a student does 35 credits (18+17) this year, do OU allows all the 35 credits tuition free?
  3. Did any one used the 'research or study abroad' scholarship of $2k for the tuition of FYRE course? This question may be a moot point if the answer to my q2 is ou does allow free tuition for any number of credits.

Thanks.

D’s $2k tech/textbook is on her 1098t- she just turned that over to the Bursar; the $625 is not- but she deposited that in her own account.
I don’t believe there’s a limit to the number of credits; my D will have 35 credits at the end of this year (if all goes as planned). Of course, each class seems to have some add’l fees associated with it.

I am just curious on how to read the different line items as recorded by OU for each semester. In other words, how to do know which line item is related to tuition and fees and why some items have credit for scholarship and some do not have. Agree, it was told normally scholarship covers only tuition and not fees. But there are credit for certain fees and not for certain fees. Is there any convention to use based on the 4 digits code to understand this better. Spent 2 hours just to read the 70+ entries for Semester 1 but going no where. I started this exercise since I was curious why they mentioned $13547.75 for qualifies expenses and $14923.50 as scholarship. I understand Dorm and Meals are not qualified expenses but still could not tally.

@GoldenRock I spoke w/ the bursar about a separate issue the other day… and they mentioned that there is a form where you can request a more informative breakdown of the expenses and accounting. The form can be found on the bursar’s page - http://www.ou.edu/content/bursar/forms1.html - “Student Request Form” This may help or may just muddy the waters.

Today I received 1090-Misc form from OU for $2k related to Textbook allowance which my D deposited directly in the bank. From OU end, they have done their part and now my D should file the tax. Basically OU will issue 1098-T if any thing dealt with Bursar office and 1090-Misc if students take the check and deposit directly. Ideally it is best to deal every thing via Bursar office and get the 1098-T.

we got D’s 1090 today as well… but they listed the 2k on it and on the 1098T; and the $625 isn’t on either. Guess I’m going to have to call them to see what is going on. Do these kids have to file Oklahoma non-resident income tax forms.? @GoldenRock @2009Refugee @3scoutsmom

Oh God I hope not! She already has to file MA taxes because of her summer camp job.

@oneundecided Check again closely. Because it will be NOT be reported in twice. As I interpret, if the student deposited the check with Bursar office then it will be on 1098-T and if the student directly deposited in bank then it will be 1090-Misc.
Not a tax advice but here is my take on it. Typically students are considered ‘temporary absence’ and hence their state is where ever the parent live is their home state. If the student qualifies for ‘who must file return’ criteria’s then they need to file. Chances are they need to file. So either they can file for themselves or parents can file as part of their tax return. But it is better to file individual since if the net student income is above kiddie tax limit, then more tax need to be paid. So better option is to file themselves and the tax will be lesser. But irrespective of how you file for student, the exemption for the child can be claimed only by parent in their return (if provided > 50% of support for student).

@GoldenRock the 2K was reported on both the 1098 and the 1090 (she deposited it with the Bursar)-- the $625 is on neither one (she took that check). OK does have some sort of non-resident/part year tax form-- so I think we may have to do that. In our case, our home state has no income tax, and she does have other income from summer employment- I think she’ll end up owing a little bit for Federal tax.