Tax Question

<p>I do the families taxes and I'm stumped. I've read comments here from last year and others on the internet and i'm stil confused. Looking for direction. </p>

<p>1098T
Box 2 Billed qualified = $8,119
Box 5 Scholarship/Grants = $12,987.50
Box 7 Includes amts for 2013</p>

<p>So, $12, 987.50 - $8,119= $4,868.50</p>

<p>$4,868.50 is for the entire academic year. </p>

<p>Question 1 - Do I use half the $4,868.50 amount to use as income?
Question 2 - where do I include this as income? the same place you put w-2's income?</p>

<p>It gets listed as “other taxable income”. If you put it on the w-2 line they will be looking for social security tax on it.</p>

<p>Ok…but do I just include half the number as the other half is for this coming tax year?</p>

<p>

Not true. It goes on line 7 of the W-2 with the words “scholarship” on the line. It is considered earned income for purposes of the standard deduction and not subject to social security tax.</p>

<p>You need to use YOUR OWN records -your child’s financial aid award letter, the account records from your child’s school which will show how much you paid and when (and what the charges were for tuition/required fees vs room and board) , and records/receipts of what your child spent for required books/materials/supplies.
The 1098T is barely worth the paper it’s printed on, and the school certainly has no idea how much was spent on books/materials/supplies.</p>

<p>See chapter 1 of Pub. 970 for details about taxable scholarships/grants, and chapter 2 for the American Opportunity Credit. Also see recent threads on these topics (on one of these I included links to earlier threads.</p>

<p>Looking at your records, did the school include BOTH tuition/fees and scholarships for the <em>current</em> term (i.e. Spring 2013 semester or Winter 2013 quarter) or just scholarships? Scholarships are only taxable if they go toward expenses other than tuition/required fees and required books/materials/supplies. </p>

<hr>

<p>See my long post (#38) in this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1456716-scholarship-income-aoc-confusion-could-you-help-me-please-3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1456716-scholarship-income-aoc-confusion-could-you-help-me-please-3.html&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>which includes this interesting statement: A Conference by the Nat’l Association of College and University Business Officers, giving guidance on the preparation of 1098-Ts by colleges:
<a href=“http://www.nacubo.org/documents/Even...ebcast_FAQ.pdf[/url]”>Page not Found; says not once but TWICE:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Taxable scholarships go on line 1 of the 1040EZ, line 7 of the 1040A or 1040. Look at the instructions for those lines, it will tell you how to report them. Basically you put SCH xxxx on the line.</p>

<p>You can add the amount spent on required books and supplies purchased in 2012 if you kept receipts to the amount in box 2 before calculating the taxable amount.</p>

<p>Both box 2 and box 5 include amounts for spring 2013?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Thanks for the info. The 1098T seems pretty much as I remember what his tuition/scholarships are for the year. I’ll have to have my son forward me a copy of the fall term to double check.</p>