Claiming education credit w/o 1098-T

[jkroeze]

My son is on an athletic scholarship (pays tuition and some room/board; not books and supplies or summer school) and according to his school didn't need a 1098-T for 2017 because his scholarship did not exceed his education/tuition expenses. Is this correct? I need to know whether I should try and claim a tax credit (most likely American Opportunity Credit) using the payment history from the school portal or not. I talked to his school yesterday and didn't get much help. When I walked through the turbo tax questions and input what I believe are the correct numbers it did qualify for the AOC but I don't want to file something I shouldn't.

Please give further comment on when to file w/o a 1098-T and whether, lacking the 1098-T, I should file education expenses at all. Thanks.

[Carl]

" Is this correct?"

Yes.

Basically, if the student will log into their online college account and go to their financials section, you can get all the details you need. Some important things to point out through.

 - All scholarships, grants, 529 funds, etc. are claimed as taxable income in the tax year they are received. It does not matter what tax year that money may be "for".

 - All qualified education expenses (tuition, books, lab fees) are claimed in the tax year they are actually paid. It does not matter what tax year is paid *for*.

When looking at the financials printout, you will claim based on the date a scholarship was received, or the date a payment was actually made/credited. It's important to completely ignore the start date of the class the money was *for*. Start dates don't matter. Only payment dates matter.

Now the rules have changed *A LOT* between 2017 and 2018. So before continuing, are you really filing a tax return for 2018 and your reference to 2017 above was a typo? This really matters.