Thanks for weighing in. I totally get that the IRS "loophole" of using taxable scholarship to increase QEE is real and legit. My hesitation is mostly the 1098-T itself.
My older kid's 1098-Ts at a private college always showed actual tuition & fees/real QEE paid, but this state school's Box 1 seems to include cost of attendance averages for all (or nearly all) charges "direct billed" by the college, including housing and dining. (Using lower COA numbers than what we paid.) Otherwise, the QEE total without R&B (or books) would only be $5,590. Since the 1098-T covers only one semester, the tuition charge is only $4,895, period. (Per the school's fall bill, COA chart, and named "full tuition" scholarship.) The standard fees per semester are $695, although we paid $790 with orientation fee.
Our total bill/charges (including R&B) before scholarships and $300 credit = $12,026, and we had $784 in books. Not sure how they arrived at Box 1: $10,526 QEE ($1,500 less than $12,026, but $4,841 more than the actual $5,685 QEE of $4,895 tuition + $790 fees).
Still not sure how to proceed. To your point, we had lots of non-qualified expenses, including a $4,000 student health insurance premium, but that doesn't count as a 529 expense.
