Hal_Al
Level 15

Education

Report only the income she has documentation for (W-2 & 1098-T). Forget the$1500 housing grant from Spring semester (it's either alteady included on the 1098-T or is not taxable (or was reported on the 2018 1098-T).

 

Her taxable income appears to be less than $4000 + less than $7000 = less than the $12,200 filiing threshold. She does not need to file a tax return, unless there was income tax withholding (box 2 of the W-2) to claim a refund of.

 

That's the simple aswer. Here comes the fun part: 

There is a tax “loophole” available. The student reports all his scholarship, up to the amount needed to claim the American opportunity credit, as income on his return. That way, the parents  (or himself, if he is not a dependent) can claim the tuition credit on their return. They can do this because that much tuition was no longer paid by "tax free" scholarship.  You cannot do this if the school’s billing statement specifically shows the scholarships being applied to tuition or if the conditions of the grant are that it be used to pay for qualified expenses.

Using an example: Student has $17,000 in box 5 of the 1098-T and $10,000 in box 1. At first glance he/she has $7000 of taxable income and nobody can claim the American opportunity credit. But if she reports $11,000 as income on her return, the parents can claim $4000 of qualified expenses on their return.