<p>Hey guys, I'm a college freshman, going into my spring semester. I'm filling out the fafsa for next year, but I"m confused on one area.</p>
<p>"Grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS
Student grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS in your adjusted gross income. Includes AmeriCorps benefits (awards, living allowances, and interest accrual payments), as well as grant and scholarship portions of fellowships and assistantships"</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I had received finaid that exceeds my COA (tuition, books, living/food). Lets say I received $10,000, and my tuition&books costed $6000, and housing $2000. I have $2000 excess. So the taxable amount I have to report is housing+excess = $4000?</p></li>
<li><p>I never had reported scholarships/grants to the IRS before. I have a summer job, but my boss told me to get the w2 in Feb1. How about I exactly report my scholarships to IRS??</p></li>
</ol>
<p>^ No.
You would report $4000 on your tax returns and you FAFSA.
Later in the FAFSA, you would subtract out the $4000, just following the instructions.</p>
<p>Only the excess of aid over qualified expenses is reported. </p>
<p>On the tax return, you include it with wages/tips amount. Then you write SCH $xxx next to it (tax software should do this automatically). Then total will be in your AGI (adjusted gross income).</p>
<p>On your FAFSA you report the AGI from your tax return. This will include the taxable scholarships. A later question (91 ish?) asks how much income in the AGI is from scholarships. Make sure you answer this accurately as the EFC formula uses this question to deduct taxable scholarships from the AGI so they do not impact your EFC.</p>
<p>For simple returns with low income, the IRS has links to freefile online tax software. It includes all the major tax software like turbotax. You should be able to use one of those to files your taxes at no cost.</p>
<p>Annoyingdad: I talked to livehelp for FAFSA. He said to report all the scholarship/grants on FAFSA.</p>
<p>Thank you swimcatsmom! I’m using the online FAFSA, but I think I understand what you’re saying :)! So the 1st thing I have to do right now is get a 1040 form, right? Will they send anything back to me after I mail it off?</p>
<p>Don’t subtract the housing and then turn around and add it back in. The result is the same but taxable scholarships/grants = total scholarships/grants - tuition - mandatory fees - required books and supplies. Forget housing and board because they aren’t qualified education expenses(QEE) for this purpose.</p>
<p>Now, if the number $4,000 you gave is the true number for taxable scholarships/grants and your parents claim you as a dependent on their return and the sum of your taxable scholarships/grants + any other earned income from jobs + any unearned income(interest/dividends etc.) isn’t more than $5950 for 2012, then you don’t have to file a return unless you have withholding you want to get back from a job you had. If you had more than $950 unearned income let us know because then there are other requirements. Scholarships/grants are considered earned income by the IRS.</p>
<p>You also need to check on your state tax requirements.</p>
<p>I talked to my mom’s accountant, and she mention something about the college filling out a 1098, and the college will send it to me.This I’m pretty puzzled.</p>
<p>Annoyingdad: Ah yes, my taxable scholarship exceeds $5950. So I guess I have to get a Form 1040. Do you know if I write the the scholarship amount designated for Fall2012, or also the ones for Spring 2013?</p>
<p>Yes, the school will send you a 1098-T which provide you some information of your tuition and scholarships, your mom’s accountant will base on that 1098-T & more information from you to figure out if you have any taxable scholorships.</p>
<p>It is based on the tax year, not the school year. So it is not the scholarships that were awarded to you for the entire school year, just those that were actually paid out in the tax year (2012).</p>
<p>Many schools have the 1098T available online. You should check if that is the case at your school.</p>
<p>Do you think it is a better idea if I waited for my 1098-T, my mother’s 1040, and my w2? I feel like if I know the amount of tuition (books I didn’t know how to use scholarship to pay), subtract it from my financial aid, and the difference is my taxable amount?</p>
<p>Required books and supplies don’t have to be paid for directly with your scholarship/grant money. If you bought them at the bookstore or from Amazon or whatever you should have saved receipts from those purchases and then you can subtract them.</p>
<p>You should have received bills (likely online) from your school showing tuition and fees charged and scholarhips/grants credited. That’s where the numbers on the 1098T will come from. So using the bills, book/supply receipts, your last pay stub, your year-end bank statement if you received any interest and if your mom can estimate her 1040 numbers, you should have what you need to submit an estimated fafsa now and then update it later with the actual numbers when taxes have been filed. You can use your mom’s 2011 1040 for the estimate if it should be close to her 2012 1040.</p>