1098-T Filer's Federal Id Error - Turbo Tax does not accept all valid federal id formats

[tm0505]

I am trying to enter a federal id for a university in the united kingdom. The id was provided by the FASFA school search webpage and starts with the letter G. TurboTax does not allow this format and indicates there is a problem with the format. Here is the information from the FASFA website on Federal ID formats that clearly states there are different formats for the federal ids. TurboTax does not accept the letter in this field. 

"A Federal School Code Is always six characters: 0 (zero), G, B, or E followed by a five-digit number. For example, 003223 is the Federal School Code for the University of Oregon." 

Either there is a bug in TurboTax and it should allow all of the valid formats or TurboTax should indicate that codes for schools outside of the US are not accepted. I had to leave the field blank to move forward. 

[AnnetteB6 · Accepted solution]

The Federal ID number reported on a Form 1098-T and the Federal School Code are not the same thing.  The Federal ID number is issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for tax purposes.

That being said, if your school is in the United Kingdom, your expenses may not qualify to claim an education tax credit.  The school must be one that is eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the U.S. Department of Education. 

Take a look at the following information from the IRS for some links you can use to verify that your school is an eligible educational institution:

What is an Eligible Educational Institution?