My son is a Grad student and received changed accounting method 1098-Ts for 2018, 2017 and 2016. He receives a stipend for research work that is reported on a W-2. He is 27 years old and can not be claimed as a dependent by us and files as a single taxpayer.
His tuition and fees are billed for spring semester in December of the previous year and Fall semester in August of the calendar year the semester is in.
His scholarship is shown as processing in February for Spring semester and August for the Fall semester. i.e. Spring 2017 charges billed in December 2016 have the scholarship applied in February 2017. Fall 2017 charges billed and scholarship applied in August 2017.
I have the actual journal entry's from the bursar's account which indicates a continuous $0.00 balance throughout the year.
The new accounting method has his billings included in BOX 2 and his scholarship included in BOX 5 with BOX 1 left blank for 2016, 2017 and 2018.
BOXes 3,8 and 9 are checked and BOX 7 is blank on his 2018 1098-T, but BOX 7 is checked on his 2017 and 2016 1098-Ts.
The problem is his out-of-state status fro 2016 and 2017. This caused the amount billed and the amount of the scholarship to be different for 2017 and 2018.
Since his BOX 2 includes the amounts billed but no indication of actual payments and his journal entries do not show an actual balance, is it correct to offset his Spring and Fall semester billings against his Spring and Fall scholarships in the calendar year they happen?
If so, do I need to amend his 2017 and 2016 1040s if it does not change his actual taxes owed?
Thanks in advance to anyone that can shed light on this.
