Question
How report 1098T with excess scholarship
- Hi. I’d like to know if and how I can utilize the AOTC tax loophole. My child has $8760 in earned income from a job. On the 1098T $38578 is in box 1 and 45063 in box 5. Box 7 and 8 are checked. She has a school awarded scholarship that is “the value of tuition.” The school supplied a transaction history on the 1098T. The amount in box 1 is the amount of tuition and $1000 in fees. The amount for scholarships in box 5 is correct. The payments for books ($360) posted on the transaction history are not included in the box 1 number. (The rest of the transaction history supplied on 1098T has refunds, her web payments, and scholarships listed as being for box 1 but they actually don’t add up to what’s in box 1. It totals 42000 in payments. I can only guess this is probably because of posts that occurred after the fall 2024? into her account ) .
- Given this information, what can I do to maximize our parent AOTC , or is it even advised?
- should she still be claimed as a dependent?
- What do I do, if anything, about this transaction history that reads like gobble-**bleep**? Or does it even matter since, I can tell that box 1 only has the tuition and fees?
- Lastly if I can maximize this return, is it advisable to do an amended tax return for the prior years that were also very much like this one? Those I just basically left the scholarships as tax free, claimed the books paid for AOTC and she paid the tax on the “excess scholarships.” Thanks!
