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<p>Chaos…the 1098t is like any other form you receive that you may need for filing taxes. Employers send a W-2. Independent contractors receive 1099 forms. Banks send forms too. The 1098T is statement from your college regarding your scholarships/grants (if you receive those) AND your allowable expenses. YOU do not fill these out at all. You receive them.</p>
<p>It is a notice. You (or whoever files the taxes for you) will use the information to complete a federal tax return.</p>
<p>Will receiving and using the 1098T have an overall positive or negative effect on the amount of taxes the parents have to pay? I would assume negative since if the IRS knows you are receiving financial aid money, they may tax the parents more.</p>
<p>If your PARENTS are using that 1098T, it is probably because THEY paid in excess of the amount you received in grants and scholarships, and the parents are getting an education tax credit of some kind.</p>
<p>If the amount on the 1098T indicates that the scholarships/grants are in EXCESS of the allowable costs, this would trigger taxes for the STUDENT…not the parents…but only if these “earning” made you exceed the standard deduction amount.</p>
<p>You can read up on all of this at [Publication</a> 970 (2010), Tax Benefits for Education](<a href=“Publication 970 (2022), Tax Benefits for Education | Internal Revenue Service”>Publication 970 (2022), Tax Benefits for Education | Internal Revenue Service) It really is less terrifying than it looks at first.</p>
<p>If I get a 0 EFC every year and receive CAL Grant, Federal Pell Grant, and UC Grant every year and do not receive a 1098T nor my parents, should I go to the FAO?</p>
<p>Well the thing is my college sometimes throw away letters in the mail if the mailbox gets too full and I only check my mailbox like twice a term so the letters may get thrown away. Will the FAO issue new 1098T for lost or damaged 1098T?</p>
<p>I think FAFSA verifications extend to bank balances <em>very</em> rarely. I have never heard of it happening, but that’s not to say it never does. If I had to verify the asset information at the time of filing the FAFSA it would be difficult or impossible to do accurately.</p>
<p>This past year, however, with the FAFSA asking only if parent assets are below… whatever it was… $52000 or something like that? That’s easy. I have never had anywhere near that much in assets, so that would be easy to prove. ;)</p>
<p>But in prior years – to prove I had $2500 in the bank and in cash, or $2700 in the bank and in cash… impossible to prove that.</p>
<p>This is an off topic question that doesn’t relate to the OP or title of this thread, but since I did created this thread, I think I should be allowed to ask this question in my own thread:</p>
<p>What is my household size if my parents are still living at home, my brother is in college, I obtained a BS degree from college and I’m 22 years of age but I am still depending on financial support from my parents, and there is no one else living in my parents’ house or depending on my parents for financial support?</p>
<p>Is the household size 3 or 4 for my brother when he fills out the FAFSA?</p>
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<p>The issue here is will your parents be providing more than HALF of your support for 2011? </p>
<p>I believe if the answer is yes, you earn less than a certain amount, you are not declared on their taxes, etc…that you can be listed as a member of the household on your little brother’s FAFSA for next year.</p>
<p>My daughter’s college mailed her 1098T to our house. My son’s college does NOT mail them. They are available online and we print our son’s to use for tax and FA purposes. Like others, we do screen prints of all our savings and checking accounts on the day we do our FAFSA and place them in our FA file - good to have if you ever need it.</p>
<p>This is my first year doing the FAFSA for my ds, who is a dual-enrolled high school senior. The CC where he is dual-enrolled was a bit tricky with the 1098T - it is ONLY available online, only available on/after 1/31, and he had to agree to a release using a different sign-on path than he would normally use to access his college information. Good thing I’m detail-oriented, or he would have missed the release agreement, thereby not gaining access to his 1098T. I am VERY annoyed that we have to wait for the 1098T to be published on/after 1/31, as it is the only document holding up completing our taxes and filing the FAFSA & CSS Profile. The college has posted a “tax summary” but since I don’t know their reporting method (whether they use box1 or box 2) and am not sure of what will end up being qualified expenses, I can’t just use that summary to fill it in myself. But the fact that the summary has been available for at least 2 weeks shows the college has all the info it needs & could probably make those 1098Ts available before 1/31!</p>
<p>34collegemom- you don’t need the 1098T, nor does it matter what reporting method the CC uses.
What you need is your own records. You will use these expenses for the Lifetime Learning Credit, therefore the only eligible expenses are tuition and required fees (things such as parking fees don’t count). Find the invoices sent by the school, plus your checking acct or credit card statements to find out what you paid <em>in 2011</em>. (if you paid the tuition for the term starting in January 2011 back in late 2010, then that doesn’t count as a 2011 expense.)</p>
<p>The 1098-T is very frequently screwed up by schools, plus (later on for you, for purposes of the American Opportunity Credit) the school doesn’t know what was paid for required textbooks, materials and supplies. You’ve got to rely on your own records.</p>
<p>{****on edit - just looked at Pub. 970 - for the LLCredit, you CAN use expenses paid in 2010 for a term beginning in the first 3 months of 2011. See Pub. 970, Chapter 3, for everything you need to know about the Lifetime Learning Credit.)</p>
<p>@MomCat2 - thx for your reply. I have noticed many references to 1098Ts being wrong. I have all my records & I guess I will just enter the information from the records, esp. since the college back-pedaled just this morning & is mailing them out today instead of having them on-line. In our neck of the woods (literally) that means I might not get it until next week!
I don’t know if this matters or not, but we plan to claim the American Opp. Credit, which apparently used to be the Hope Credit, since it is a full credit against taxes vs. a deduction & it is scheduled to sunset in 2012; maybe it will be extended, maybe it won’t. Although it can only be claimed for 4 years, it might not be around after this year. It was most kind of you to take a look at PUb 970 - I had it pulled up on the computer Sunday when I was working on all this. I thought I could be done by now, along with my taxes, but every time I turn around I find out something else I didn’t know! So grateful for all the “old hands” here who are so generous with sharing their experiences and knowledge with newbies like me!</p>
<p>34collegemom-
Your son must have been enrolled half-time or more in order to be eligible for the AOC - see pub. 970: “For at least one academic period beginning in 2010, the student was enrolled at least half-time in a program leading to a degree, certificate, or other recognized educational credential.”
If he was only going part-time (in 2011) and is still considered a high school student, you can still use the Lifetime Learning Credit, because for this one (from table 3-1 in pub 970 “overview of the Lifetime Learning Credit”):
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<p>Our kids took dual-enrollment courses while in jr and sr years HS - one or two courses at a time. We took the LLC for the jr-year and 1st-half-of-sr-year courses, then were eligible for the AOC once they began college as full-time students.</p>
<p>The AOC will remain the same as it is now for 2012 educational expenses (max of $2500 tax credit for $4000 of eligible educational expenses – tuition + required books, materials & supplies.) If Congress doesn’t act, it will revert back to the Hope Credit for 2013 - max of $1800 tax credit – but I read somewhere that this might possibly be adjusted up to $1900 for inflation (provided, of course, that Congress doesn’t act to extend the AOC or make it permanent (as President Obama has been pushing for in his proposed budget))</p>
<p>Thx for the heads-up! Yes, he is enrolled more than half-time, and the college he attends considers him degree-seeking, too. I didn’t realize the Hope Credit would automatically be put back into place; I thought Congress would have to act first. Thanks again for sharing your wealth of knowledge!</p>
<p>In doing a little more research on this topic (for another thread) tonight, I came across this, from Pub. 970, page 12 - in the section about the American Opportunity credit:
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<p>This may help clarity your situation as to the American Opportunity Credit for this past year - if the school has not actually accepted him for regular admission (prior to having a high school diploma) then the AOC may be out. But he would still qualify for the Lifetime Learning Credit - for that one, the student does not have to be enrolled in a degree program. Plus, as I posted in this thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1283899-high-school-student-taking-college-class-there-tax-credit.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1283899-high-school-student-taking-college-class-there-tax-credit.html</a> the IRS does make it clear that high school students can be eligible for educational tax credits.</p>
<p>At the college where my kids took concurrent enrollment classes, hs students taking concurrent enrollment classes were a special classification of students (and had to re-apply each semester on a “concurrent enrollment” application with the approval of the high school) and were not the same as regular students who had completed hs and gone through the whole regular application process.</p>