Tax Year Prior to 2020: Scholarship

am7315 · ‎February 9, 2020

My daughter won a $10000 scholarship to be disbursed in $1250 increments per semester. The scholarship meant for the 2019 Spring semester was disbursed in December of 2018 and showed up on my 2018 1098-t . I did my taxes not for 2018 not realizing that and now my 2019 1098-t only shows $1250 in scholarships and not $2500. Also i have an amount in box 4 for $71 on my 2019 1098-t. Do I need to amend my tax return for 2018 to remove the $1250 scholarship meant for the following year or for the amount in box 4? I am sorry if i am not clear

VictorW9 · ‎February 9, 2020

Well, the scholarship amount will affect the tuition credit you got in 2018. It means you had more tuition credit than you would have otherwise received had you taken the scholarship amount on the 1098-T into consideration in 2018. If you really want to make sure your return is as accurate as it should be you can amend your taxes for 2018. For administrative convenience you can choose to take half the scholarship amount in 2019 being that you've already taken the credit in 2018. Your call.

[Edited: 2/11/2020 5:14pm]

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am7315 · ‎February 11, 2020

So I kind of figured that scholarship money applied to the spring semester the following year(2019) but showing up on my 2018 1098-T would affect my tuition credit but because my OOP was a lot more than the $4k I can use for the AOC I didn't think it would affect me one way or the other. So it would be easier just leave it as it is