This problem still exists with TurboTax. I am using TurboTax home and business (2022). The program is as clear as mud in explaining discrepancies between what the 1098-T says on line 1, and what we paid for tuition. Apparently, our college (Purdue), will only put an amount in box one of the 1098-T if the tuition is billed and paid for in the same year. In our case, my son's spring tuition due bill was issued in December 2021, but paid in January 2022. Since he was a senior and had no other bills after the spring semester, line one on the 1098-T was left blank. TurboTax did not seem to explain very well how to adjust the tuition paid as it flows to form 8863-page 2 in an easy-to-understand way.
I've noticed several items thru the years that there are poor explanations in TurboTax as to how to enter data. This then requires some research and time to enter correctly. The tax forms are correct once the data is entered according to TurboTax's methods. TurboTax needs to work on improving how to explain these nuances. In this case, one must know the outcome of entries (i.e., know something about tax code) to immediately notice that an entry is not getting the correct result. Since I had only taken the American Opportunity Tax credits in 3 previous years, getting this right effected the $2500 American Opportunity Tax Credit for me. Coordinating with the 529 accounts is confusing enough.
Get this better-defined/ better explained in TurboTax please.
