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Ngabby
New Member

Did NICOLE B's Aid Include Amounts Not Awarded for 2024 Expenses? Did NICOLE B Pay for Room and Board with a Scholarship or Grant?

I am unsure what to put. Some was used for my tution and left over money I used to live off. I did not stay on campus.

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2 Replies
Vanessa A
Employee Tax Expert

Did NICOLE B's Aid Include Amounts Not Awarded for 2024 Expenses? Did NICOLE B Pay for Room and Board with a Scholarship or Grant?

If you used some of the Scholarship or Grant money to live off of then you would answer yes, that it was used to pay for room and board.

As for the Not awarded for 2024 expenses, was any of the amount that was reported on your 1098-T used to pay for tuition from either the previous year or the future year ( did it include amounts for 2023 or 2025) you would need to get this information from your school if you do not know. 

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Hal_Al
Level 15

Did NICOLE B's Aid Include Amounts Not Awarded for 2024 Expenses? Did NICOLE B Pay for Room and Board with a Scholarship or Grant?

What are you trying to accomplish?  It can get tricky entering education info in TurboTax (TT). It's best to have an idea of what the expected outcome is. 

The 1098-T is only an informational document. The numbers on it are not required to be entered onto your tax return. However receipt of a 1098-T frequently means you are either eligible for a tuition credit or possibly your student has taxable scholarship income. 

If you claim the tuition credit, you do need to report that you got one or that you qualify for an exception (the TurboTax interview will handle this)

You claim the tuition credit, or report scholarship income, based on your own financial records, not the 1098-T. 

 

Scholarships that pay for or are allocated to  qualified educational expenses (QEE - tuition, fees, books and other course materials) is tax free.  Scholarship amounts that exceed QEE is taxable income, on the student’s tax return.

 

It doesn't matter what you actually used the scholarship money for. What matters is whether you had qualified education expenses (QEE) that you could allocate that money to. It may be best explained by example. Box 5, of the 1098-T is $6000. Box 1 is $4000. In addition, you have $1000 for books and a computer  On the surface, you have $1000 of taxable scholarship to report, as income.  But, you can choose to allocate the money differently, for the best tax effect.  Read on for the most common scenario.

 

There is a tax “loop hole” available to claim an education credit, for the parents of students on scholarship. The student reports all his scholarship, up to the amount needed to claim the American Opportunity Credit (AOC), as income on his return. That way, the parents  (or himself, if he is not a dependent) can claim the tuition credit on their return. They can do this because that much tuition was no longer paid by "tax free" scholarship.  You cannot do this  if the conditions of the grant are that it be used to pay for qualified expenses.

Using an example: Student has $10,000 in box 5 of the 1098-T and $8000 in box 1. At first glance he/she has $2000 of taxable income and nobody can claim the American opportunity credit. But if she reports $6000 as income on her return, the parents can claim $4000 of qualified expenses on their return.

Books and computers are also qualifying expenses for the AOC. So, extending the example, the student had another $1000 in expenses for those course materials, paid out of pocket. She would only need to report $5000 of taxable scholarship income, instead of $6000.

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