I got a 1098-t for myself but her tuition was covered completely. The school insists that there's no 1098-t in that instance, and I never got on before. How do I get Turbotax to stop taking me in circles?
If you only have a 1098-T for your education, and you do not want to use any of your dependent daughter's education expenses, only list yourself as a student. Do not include the daughter as a student unless you have additional forms, such as a 1099-Q, that relate to the daughter.
To clarify, do you have other forms to report regarding your daughter?
Go through the entire education interview until you reach a screen titled "Your Education Expenses Summary". Click delete next to the student's name.
You said: "The school insists that there's no 1098-t in that instance, and I never got one before". That is correct, but after answering no to having a 1098-T, you can answer yes to qualifying for an exception (that gets you to the entry screens). You say her tuition was covered completely.
Be advised that 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.
The IRS actually encourages use of this technique. From the form 1040 instructions: “You may be able to increase an education credit if the student chooses to include all or part of a Pell grant or certain other scholarships or fellowships in income. For more information, see Pub. 970, the instructions for Form 1040 and IRS.gov/EdCredit". PUB 970 even has examples of how to do the “loop hole”.