Hal_Al
Level 15

Education

The question is SHOULD you enter scholarship information. The answer, as with most tax questions is: it depends.

Since you are claimed as a dependent, you cannot claim an education credit on your return. You parents will claim any tuition credit.

If your scholarships don't exceed you qualified higher educational expenses (QHEE) (tuition, fees books and other course materials), none of your scholarship is taxable and none of it is reported on your tax return.

If your scholarships (not counting loans) exceed your QHEE (they paid for room & board too), the excess is taxable income and gets reported on your return. If you total income, including excess scholarship is less than $6300, you do not need to report it, unless you go for the "loophole".

 There is a tax “loophole” available. The student reports all his scholarship, up to the amount needed to claim the American opportunity credit (AOC), as income on his return. That way, the parents 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 $10,000 in box 5 of the 1098-T and $8000 in box 2. At first glance he/she has $2000 of taxable income and nobody can claim the AOC. But if she reports $6000 as income on her return, the parents can claim $4000 of qualified expenses on their return.