Tuition foreign university

[pbearish]

My daughter attends a foreign university (St Mary's University, Twickenham, London, UK). She is an international student there, not an exchange student.  The school did not send me 1098-T.  Are the tuition payments deductible?  How do I convert the fee from British SterlingPounds to US Dollar?

[Carl · Accepted solution]

Yes, that particular foreign college is a qualified institution.  It's on the list at https://ifap.ed.gov/ifap/fedSchoolCodeList.jsp so you're good. All qualified education expenses can be claimed on your (the parent's) tax return with no issues. You'll convert your cost from sterling pounds to dollars, the exact opposite way your dollars were converted to sterling. If you used a credit card or something of that nature, then your statements should show the converstion rate. Otherwise, if you did some other type of monitary transfer (such as a wire transfer) then your transaction paperwork should show the conversion rate.

Note that qualified expenses for schoarships, grants, and money paid out of your pocket are tuition, books, lab fees. That's it.

For expenses paid with 529 funds and reported to you on a 1099-Q, your qualified expenses are tution, books, lab fees "AND" room & board.

Transportation costs are not deductible at all unfortunately.