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Student resides in NJ, attends college in NY or PA. Who do I pay state taxes to?

My dependent children reside in NJ (since I am claiming them and I reside in NJ).

I have 2 different college students attending colleges in NY and PA.  They both have received scholarships that exceed the qualified educational costs and have paid for all (in one case) and a portion (in the other case) of room and board.

My question is: Which state am I responsible for paying state taxes on for the taxable scholarship money (used for room and board)?  If you could clarify the situations for PA and NY respectively, that would be appreciated!

Thanks!

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3 Replies
Hal_Al
Level 15

Student resides in NJ, attends college in NY or PA. Who do I pay state taxes to?

Taxable scholarship is considered "sourced" in the student's home state. In both cases, the taxable scholarship would be reported only on the NJ return.

 

Taxable scholarship goes on the student's tax return, not the parent's. If the amount is less than $14,600 ($10K NJ) and that is the student's only income, they do not need to file a tax return. 

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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”.

 

Student resides in NJ, attends college in NY or PA. Who do I pay state taxes to?

I am using the loophole.  I reported it under the "Did my child pay for room and board with a scholarship or grant?" question.

So in this situation, they made $5665 in W2 income from a summer job and $7990 was paid from a scholarship to pay off room and board.  Would they need to file a federal return?

Hal_Al
Level 15

Student resides in NJ, attends college in NY or PA. Who do I pay state taxes to?

Q. They made $5665 in W2 income from a summer job and $7990 was paid from a scholarship. Would they need to file a federal return?

A. No. That's less than $14,600 total. That answer assumes that the $7990 includes the additional taxable scholarship (usually $4000) that allows you to use the loophole.  Either way, you may want to file anyway, to document the reporting of the scholarship income.  

 

I'm not specifically familiar with NJ rules.  But, it appears they have a $10,000 filing requirement.  In TurboTax, you'll have to first prepare a federal return before you can prepare a NJ return. 

 

Scholarships are a hybrid between earned and unearned income. It is earned income for purposes of the $14,600 filing requirement (2024) and the dependent standard deduction calculation (earned income + $450).  It is not earned income for the kiddie tax and other purposes (e.g. EIC).  For grad students and post grad fellows (but not undergrads), scholarship, stipend and fellowship income is earned income ("compensation") for IRA contributions.

Taxable scholarship goes on line 8r of Schedule 1, from which TT treats it as hybrid income.

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