@Carl Thanks so much for your high attention to detail, Carl. Question for you - you said to @vmi9d3 on March 2, 2020 -
"Your off campus R&B was not paid with any scholarship money, because you don't see any application of that scholarship money to the off campus living expenses, anywhere in the student's on line college account in the financials section of their account. It's an out of pocket expense any way you look at it. That out of pocket expense for R&B is not reported anywhere on any tax return."
I just want to clarify / make sure this is true in my case. I was a full time student but lived off campus (adult, renting). I received $13,690 in scholarships and grants for 2020. My tuition costs were $8772 - that's what I paid the school for 2020 before they reimbursed me with scholarship disbursements.
Question 1: Do I take $13,690 - $8772 = $4918, and say that that $4918 is how much was spent on 'room and board' since I didn't use it to pay tuition? As it was in excess of tuition?
Or, as you said in the scenario above, do I just consider my 'room and board' out of pocket expense, since there's no record of it being paid to an entity or the school, and report the scholarship information as the $13,690?
I did pay off student loans during 2020 as well, so the scholarship money technically could have gone towards that rather than room and board.
Question 2
Caveat, I paid $2987 of that tuition in 2019, for the upcoming semester. I'm a little gummed up in the "irs works in calendar years, schools work in academic years" I tend to think in academic - this $8772 was how much I paid for my schooling for 2020, including a payment made in 2019. That would mean my actual payments IN 2020, but not for it, were $8,772 - $2,987 = $5,785 - if I'm going by calendar years. Is that correct?
So then, is that number what I would report as my tuition payments, not the $8772 or the Box 1 $6458?
My school reported in Box 1 of 1098 T - Payments received as $6,458, with an adjustment made for a prior year (Box 4) of $865. No matter how I crunch the numbers thus far, I can't figure out how they got that number. But, on my actual financial account activity with the school, I have record of paying $8,772 for tuition and related fees. My only guess is that they have certain fees that are part of enrolling for each semester that students can later ask to opt out of & be reimbursed for (they are minimal, I think there's only one line item). But they are lumped in with all the typical enrollment fees alongside tuition.
Question 2: Do I report the $8772 as my tuition payments, or do I report the $6458 that the school lists?
Or do I report the $5785 that are my actual payments in 2020, not my payments for 2020 school year?
Thanks so much for your help. Really appreciate the gifts of the thorough who take joy in understanding this stuff, and explaining it to us, to the benefit of the rest of us. I'm in circles over it.
Best,
