Q. Can room and board (like rent and groceries) be noted under "Books and materials not required to be purchased from the school"? from the 1098-t form?
A. Room & board (R&B) are not qualified expenses for the tuition credit or deduction. R&B are qualified expenses for distributions from a 529 plan. In TurboTax (TT), R&B are entered separately from books and course materials.
"My scholarship included tuition and stipend, in which tuition was separately listed in box 5 for Scholarship and Grants and the stipend was listed in box 1 for Payments received for qualified tuition and related expenses".
That is not an accurate description of a 1098-T. Box 1 is qualified tuition and fees paid, regardless of the source of payment. It could include scholarships or loans or out of pocket payments. Box 5 is total scholarships, regardless of what they were designated for. "Stipends" may, or may not, be included in box 5. You would have to determine that from your own records.
