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How do I enter college expenses if the school is not required to send a 1098-T?

Should I just get the info from the financial statement?
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1 Best answer

Accepted Solutions
Patrice
New Member

How do I enter college expenses if the school is not required to send a 1098-T?

Certainly, you can still claim your 2016 qualified education expenses on your tax return. You don't necessarily need a Form 1098-T to claim any of the various federal tax benefits for educational expenses.  These include:

1) American Opportunity Credit

2) Lifetime Learning Credit

3) Tuition & Fees Deduction

4) Educational expense (deduction) related to your self-employment; or as an educational expense undertaken at the request of your employer for which you did not get reimbursed.

An official 1098-T is not absolutely required in order to claim any of them.  The IRS does not explicitly mandate that you as a taxpayer have a 1098-T.  There are exceptions to the rule.  Proof of your expenses in the form cancelled checks to your school, bank statements, or a statement of student account from your school's registrar office are good enough to satisfy the recordkeeping provisions of the law.

In TurboTax, you'll simply tell the program that "yes" you incurred educational expenses, but that "no" you don't have a 1098-T.  You'll then be presented with the opportunity to input the dollar amounts of your educational expenses. You may additionally find the information at the following TurboTax FAQ pages helpful:

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Tax-Deductions-and-Credits/What-are-Education-Tax-Cre...

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/College/Video--What-Educational-Expenses-Are-Tax-Dedu... 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/5664307

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/5663752

View solution in original post

1 Reply
Patrice
New Member

How do I enter college expenses if the school is not required to send a 1098-T?

Certainly, you can still claim your 2016 qualified education expenses on your tax return. You don't necessarily need a Form 1098-T to claim any of the various federal tax benefits for educational expenses.  These include:

1) American Opportunity Credit

2) Lifetime Learning Credit

3) Tuition & Fees Deduction

4) Educational expense (deduction) related to your self-employment; or as an educational expense undertaken at the request of your employer for which you did not get reimbursed.

An official 1098-T is not absolutely required in order to claim any of them.  The IRS does not explicitly mandate that you as a taxpayer have a 1098-T.  There are exceptions to the rule.  Proof of your expenses in the form cancelled checks to your school, bank statements, or a statement of student account from your school's registrar office are good enough to satisfy the recordkeeping provisions of the law.

In TurboTax, you'll simply tell the program that "yes" you incurred educational expenses, but that "no" you don't have a 1098-T.  You'll then be presented with the opportunity to input the dollar amounts of your educational expenses. You may additionally find the information at the following TurboTax FAQ pages helpful:

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Tax-Deductions-and-Credits/What-are-Education-Tax-Cre...

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/College/Video--What-Educational-Expenses-Are-Tax-Dedu... 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/5664307

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/5663752

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