I am resident alien and my spouse is F1 student, we are filing jointly My spouse does not have 1098-T. Can she use tuition and education expenses for itemized deduction?

[LinaJ2018 · Accepted solution]

I believe your spouse did not receive a Form 1098-T from school is due to her nonresident status.  And in default, she does not qualify to claim any educational benefit because of that. However, if you are a resident alien as you stated, you can treat your spouse as a resident by making an election of Nonresident to resident and then you can claim the paid tuition expenses under the education section on your taxes.  You do not claim as itemized deductions on a Schedule A. 

To enter education information without a Form 1098-T,  please follow these steps:

• After sign into your account, select Pick up where you left off
• At the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "1098t" and Enter 
•  Select the 1st choice on the search results - Jump to form 1098T 
• Follow prompts