Question about coordination of two 1098T forms

Paying for College
1

What if a student attended a school for fall '14 and spring '15 and didn’t claim an AOTC credit for 2014 because his qualified expenses were covered all but a few $ by grants and he had no book receipts.

He then transfers to a different school and attends fall '15. This school’s tuition and fees is higher than the grants received so student wants to claim AOTC.

Now for 1098 Ts:

School 1 reported 2 semesters of billed tuition and fees, but only one semester of grants on 2014 form.
It reports remaining semester of grants on 2015 form.

2014 1098 T 2015 1098 T
box 2 $9038 box 2 $0
box 5 $4500 box 5 $4500
box 7 is checked

School 2 reports one semester of billed tuition and fees and one semester of grants on 2015 form.

box 2 $6700
box 5 $2800

So here is the question. Can the student offset the amount of grants on 2015 form with the extra billed semester on the 2014 form for school 1?

Can he then just use the numbers on the 2015 form for school 2 to figure AOTC?

Otherwise it looks like he needs to amend 2014 tax return to claim AOTC and cannot claim it for 2015 and ends up having to include $600 of taxable grants in income?

Turbotax does seem to ask a question about aid on the 1098 T covering expenses for a semester not in 2015.

Will that question fix the issue?

2

It’s not necessary to have receipts for books in order to claim that expense for AOTC purposes, as long as other requirements are met. Depending on how much the books for fall 2014 cost, the taxpayer may want to consider filing an amended 2014 return anyway.

3

Thank you. I recommended to just take all of the 1098 T forms to the tax preparer so he can determine the best course of action.

I am pretty new to education credits myself and dealing with two school’s 1098T forms has me stumped, especially since the one school reported the one semester of grants in the following year.

I like how my D’s school does it, two semesters of billed expenses and two of aid on the same form.