Scholarships

[Charlotte7598]

Hello,

If my 1098-T for 2021 shows $1728 for payments received for qualified tuition expenses, and only $432 for scholarships, did I need to report that $432 as income in some other section of my tax return?

[DoninGA]

No.  Since your scholarship is less than your tuition payments there is no need to enter the scholarship anywhere else on your tax return.

[MichaelG81]

No, only if Box 5 is greater than Box 1 of your 1098T may it possibly become taxable. You can include qualified educational expenses and may even qualify for an education tax credit if Box 1 is greater than Box 5, generally. Unless it specifically tells you to report as income, it'd be reported in Personal Income, Other Income, Other Reportable Income, Scholarship Money, Amount.

@Charlotte7598 

[Charlotte7598]

Ok, so I did get a full tuition scholarship for 3 years. For 2017, tuition billed was about 36,000 and scholarship was 35,000. So, is it that all along, the scholarship I was getting for free tuition for all that money should have been reported as taxable income?

[Charlotte7598]

Uh oh. Box 1 says $0 for 2017, box 2 $36,000, box 5 $35,000.....am I in deep trouble?

I see it says on my return "Reconcilation of box 2: amount NOT PAID during 2017 $0, amount actually paid during 2017 $36,000." If that makes a difference.

[Charlotte7598]

@MichaelG81 So basically my concern is that my 1098-T for 2017 makes it look like I had 35,000 in taxable income since box 1 was 0, when that scholarship definitely went towards tuition as I won it directly through my school and that money never even ended up in my hands. I know it can take the IRS years to investigate something like this so it surely isn't off the table for them, so do you think this is something I should contact my school about at this point to get an amended form?