Can I claim the education credit if my University of Edinburgh is foreign and does not send a 1098T form; are foreign universities "required" to send the 1098?

[soccermidfielder]

The University sent me a confirmation of payment but says as a foreign entity it does not file 1098 form.  I have the EIN number.  Can I still claim the credit and use turbo-tax?  Can I claim the exception because University is foreign?

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

You do not need a 1098-T to claim the credit.  But you do need to the school to be an "eligible institution". 

To be eligible for the tuition credits or tuition & fees deduction, the course must be taken at "an eligible institution". The school should be able to tell you if it is an eligible educational institution. In general, an eligible educational institution is an accredited college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary educational institution, including accredited, public, nonprofit, and proprietary (privately-owned, profit-making) postsecondary institutions. Additionally, in order to be an eligible educational institution, the school must be eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the Department of Education. 

Enter your school at the link below, to see if it's on the dept. of education list.

https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/schoolSearch?locale=en_EN (choose foreign country for state)

[soccermidfielder]

thank you, very helpful.  But i still need to ask:  on the turbo tax form I am asked to state that the University of Edinburgh has an "exception" and does not need to send the 1098 -- is this true?  Are foreign institutions automatically exempt from having to send a 1098?  I have to say yes to this exception or TT doesn't let me claim the credit.  Is this the correct way to do it?

[Hal_Al]

Yes, that's true. foreign institutions are automatically exempt

[mrshreero]

agree with above but then it asks for school's federal ID which i dont have

[lgigli]

Exactly.  Our foreign university does not have an EIN, but it is eligible.  Turbo is not letting me e-file without the number.

[amytim-5]

I think I finally found a link that has the 9-digit IDs for lots of foreign universities, so I think it will work. TurboTax would not accept a generic number, but it would accept the one I found in this list for Cardiff University. Hopefully I will get the AOTC for my son's 2018 tuition.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ifap.ed.gov/fedschcodelist/attachments/1112FedSchoolCodeList.xls">https://ifap.ed.gov/fedsch...>

[lgigli]

that's interesting.  Did these numbers actually work in turbo Tax.  These aren't really EINs, but if they work, great.  For example, UC Berkeley's real EIN starts with 94-, but the school id in this document is 45*******.  Same number of digits, but different numbers.

[lgigli]

that's interesting.  Did these numbers actually work in turbo Tax.  These aren't really EINs, but if they work, great.  For example, UC Berkeley's real EIN starts with 94-, but the school id in this document is 45*******.  Same number of digits, but different numbers.

[mfchamberlin1]

thank you for adding the link above!