Q. I am not allowed to report Spring 2024 tuition any more in 2024, right?
A. Right. But you are allowed to report that as "scholarships received was not designated for 2024 expenses.
Q. If we parents claim AOC on our return, How do I add $4000 on my student's return?
A. There are several ways it can be done, including adding it as additional scholarships received.
Enter the 1098-T, on your return, but only enter $4000 in box 1. No other numbers. You only enter the 1098-T to get TurboTax to check the proper box on form 8863. Lying to TurboTax to get it to do what you want does not constitute lying to the IRS. The 1098-T that you enter in TT is not sent to the IRS.
Enter the 1098-T, exactly as received, on the student's return. Enter book and computer expenses separately. In his interview, you should eventually reach a screen called "Amount used to calculate education credit" (or similar wording). Be sure the amount in that box is $4000. That will put all his excess scholarship as income on his return (line 8r of Schedule 1).
Be advised some people are saying they're not getting the "Amount used to claim the tuition credit" (or “Education Expenses used for a Tax Credit”) screen on the dependent’s interview. Check the student information work sheet (part VI, line 17) to verify it was entered. If not, the alternate workaround is to enter $4000 less than the actual box 1 amount, when you enter the 1098-T (or $4000 more to scholarship in box 5).
There's yet another (and easiest) work around. Manually calculate the taxable amount of scholarship and enter the 1098-T, on his return, with 0 in box 1 and the taxable amount in box 5. Enter no other numbers. In that case the amount in the "Amount used to claim the tuition credit" box is 0 (if it comes up, it shouldn't).
Before doing that, it may be helpful to first delete the previously entered 1098-T and start over, so that there's not conflicting data still hanging around.
