I paid all my child's tuition and fees in Dec 2018 for Spring 2019. But, the school applied part of the Spring 2019 fees to Box 1 on the 2018 1098-T and part to the 2019 1098-T - in no logical manner. It looked like they threw a dart to decide what to put on the form.
The college waited until Spring 2019 to apply the Spring 2019 scholarship - which they reported in Box 5. And, it looks somehow like they are showing $4,000 more in scholarship money than she received. I think it has something to do with the Spring 2018 Study Abroad in which we had to pay part of that semester to another organization and part to her degree-seeking college for the rest of normal tuition in almost exactly that amount.
Thus, now it looks like my student owes taxes on nearly $18,00 in scholarship money when they should owe nothing.
The college won't even talk about it to me because they don't want to give "tax advice". What good is a scholarship if you have to take out a personal loan to pay the taxes on it?
Do I just put the total amount of tuition in qualified expenses, write a letter, somehow force the college to provide a corrected 1098-T (good luck), or what? What do I do?
