EIN/TIN for Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

[pvdbroek]

My son is a US citizen studying at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. To file our taxes we need the EIN?TIN for the Vrije Universiteit but I cannot find it anywhere.  Does someone know or know where to find it?

Paul 

[Hal_Al]

You'll have to ask the school.

You can't find the school's EIN because it probably doesn't exist.   Although, technically, a foreign school on The Dept. of Education's approved list is eligible for a tuition credit, you cannot claim the American Opportunity Credit without an EIN (this rule is fairly new).  You can still claim the Lifetime Learning Credit. 

§25(g)(i)(b)(3) includes an absolute requirement for the EIN of the educational institution.

"No American Opportunity Tax Credit shall be allowed under this section unless the taxpayer includes the employer identification number of any institution to which qualified tuition and related expenses were paid with respect to the individual."

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/25A

[pvdbroek]

Thanks for your response. I think the answer is not corect, though. Through the research support teams of the Vrije Universiteit I was able to obtain the EIN/TIN for that university. Likewise I received the EIN/TIN of another university in the Netherlands. 

My take is that any non-US university that is eligible to pursue US grants, has an EIN/TIN. 

[Hal_Al]

Thanks for letting us know. You are the first person, that I am aware of, to report this, in this forum.  With the rule change, it makes sense that the eligible foreign schools would now go to the effort of obtaining a US tax ID number. See https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2018-08-06/general-subj....

Are you sure the number you got is an EIN and not just the Dept. of Education number? 

[pvdbroek]

pretty sure. I also have a FAFSA number for each institution, and those are different from the EIN/TINs. Plus the offices explicitly gave them as EIN/TINS.