<p>On my 1098 T, qualified tuition and related expenses is about 1500 dollars less than the scholarships/grants. My understanding is that the $1500 dollars goes on my daughter's taxes. He says he just ignores it and that we don't have to declare it. I'm pretty sure he is wrong. Am I correct? </p>
<p>Another question is whether I can reduce the $1500 dollars amount with the purchase of a computer, other class materials (paper, pens, etc), and class supplies such as goggles. Her grant covers books this year.</p>
<p>If $1500 is all the income your daughter has, then he is correct. The standard deduction for a single person is $5700. So unless her income is higher than that, she doesn’t even need to file. If she had a little bit of wages with withholding she may want to file for the refund.</p>
<p>No. You can’t reduce the $1500 with non required supplies, but you don’t need to.</p>
<p>Lab kits and goggles are probably required of everyone taking the class, so those would be qualified expenses. The computer, unless required by the school (which isn’t normally the case since most colleges have computers that students can use) is not required and can only be used as a qualified expense for 529 plan withdrawals. As 3bm103 said, you probably don’t need to worry about any of that stuff unless your D is actually required to file a return.</p>
<p>No, she isn’t required, but she has withholding from her summer job and would like that $200 back. So she can deduct things like lab goggles that are required by courses but not other supplies. Too bad, as that wipes out any state refund ($100) according to my tax program which I don’t understand as she made less than $5500 which is the state cut-off for filing. Is the tax program just wrong? Can she deduct required (everyone must pay this) activity fees?</p>
<p>The cut-offs for filing indicate who is REQUIRED to file. If your daughter wants to go ahead and file even though her earnings were below the cut-off, that would be OK too.</p>
<p>Yeah, my son too had scholarships in excess of qualified expenses. With his employment income he still doesn’t owe any federal but owes $59 to the state.</p>
<p>Go over the 1098T carefully though and make sure it accurately represents what was billed and payed for in 2010. If by activity fee you mean a fee all student’s must pay to support all activities, not just the ones in the activity, it is qualified. Was the fee on your bill?</p>
<p>Thanks annoying dad. The activity fee is on the bill but, I will have to look as to whether it was included in the qualified expenses box. It’s confusing as the grant covers books/materials as well and is a variable amount. </p>
<p>I did read in another thread, since the grant/scholarship isn’t specifically earmarked for tuition and fees, I can apply some of the money for room and board, have D pay taxes on that, and deduct that amount from our taxes. If I put the numbers as is on the 1098T, I don’t get a tax credit. Has anyone done this?</p>
<p>Don’t forget to figure out whether all of the money on the 1098T is for calendar year 2010, or if some of it is for 2011. You can separate the money yourself, and use only the 2010 money for your tax work in 2010, and the money attributable to costs in calendar year 2011 in 2011.</p>
<p>Thanks happymom, you are right! Then she just has $750 to pay taxes on. So the data on the 1098T needs to be manipulated anyway in order to take into account it’s just for 1/2 a year. Thanks.</p>
<p>Is it Federal or State taxes that need to be paid on the amount in excess of the qualified tuition? If its state, is it the state you live in or the state the school is located in?</p>