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fasteddie577
Level 6
March 1, 2021
Solved

Adjusted Qualified Education Expenses

  • March 1, 2021
  • 2 replies
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Are the Adjusted Qualified Education Expenses calculated by adding the total tuition and required books/course material, minus grants/scholarships?  I have provided an example below. Thank you.

 

Example:

Tuition: $10,000

Books/Course Materials: $2,000.

Total Grants/Scholarships: $8,000

Adjusted Qualified Education Expenses: $4,000

Best answer by MaryK4

Yes, that is 100% correct,  Adjusted Qualified Education Expenses are the tuition and other fees less scholarships and other tax free payments.  See Determining Qualified Education Expenses,

2 replies

MaryK4
MaryK4Answer
Level 15
March 1, 2021

Yes, that is 100% correct,  Adjusted Qualified Education Expenses are the tuition and other fees less scholarships and other tax free payments.  See Determining Qualified Education Expenses,

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fasteddie577
Level 6
March 1, 2021

Thank you very much. 

AmyC
Level 15
April 11, 2023

The override changes your return numbers and voids the accuracy guarantee but will not flag the IRS. 

 

I tried to find your numbers in reading through the posts but only saw $26570 for box 1 of 1098-T. I don't know your Q distribution , room and board, or other education expenses. I do know that the Q should not be entered unless it has a taxable amount. I find people enter the form when they should not and that will also throw off the program.

 

IRS Pub 970 states: Generally, distributions are tax free if they aren't more than the beneficiary's AQEE for the year. Don't report tax-free distributions (including qualifying rollovers) on your tax return.

@cliftstr 

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Level 2
April 14, 2023

Hi Amy,

 

I appreciate you continuing to respond and try to help me.

 

I find it a little aggravating that by using the override to fix a bug in turbo tax, it would be voiding an accuracy guarantee that Turbo Tax has already failed by virtue of my having to override a value that is clearly wrong.

 

Having said that.  I am unclear what I should do to get an accurate return.

My 1099Q shows these values in boxes 1-3:

1) $26904

2) $19254

3) $7650

 

None of those values are explicitly a "Taxable Amount"

 

The 1098Q shows

Box 1 $26570

Box 5 $4334

 

The box 1 amount must reflect only tuition because I paid $45k in tuition room and board after the scholarship adjustment.

 

Turbo Tax does not provide me a way to enter qualified expenses.  You have mentioned that repeatedly but I've not been able to get TT to ask me those questions, but the simple answer is 45k.

 

So, I am unsure if I should enter the 1099Q and then manually force the 45k value into the QTD worksheet, or if I should just leave all of these college disbursements out since I spent more than I withdrew and TT does not handle the data properly.

 

When I enter the 1099Q and 1098T, the 1098T value is reduced by 10k and reduced by the scholarship.  For my case, both deductions of the college expenses are incorrect.

 

I would greatly appreciate some advice on how to get TT to produce an accurate return for this data.

 

C-

AmyC
Level 15
April 14, 2023

Okay! We do not want to override anything to void the accuracy guarantee.

Instead, work in the program, step-by-step section. It is good to know you are using the desktop program so you can see what is happening.

 

You paid $45k to the school of which $26570 was tuition. The rest was room and board and required fees. $45 - $26570 = $18,430 to be taken from 1099-Q.

 

1099-Q of $26,904 -the room, etc of $18,430 = $8,474 to be used on actual tuition. 1099-Q is used up. Do not enter, tuck in tax folder.

 

1098-T Box 1 Tuition of $26,570 was partially covered by the Q for $8474. Leaving $18,096 to figure out and allocate.

 

Box 5 scholarships $4334 comes off  $18,096 and you still have over $4,000 left for you to claim full AOTC credit.

 

Just enter the 1098-T as is and avoid the extra hassle. Keep this math and the  1099-Q in your tax folder. If the IRS asks, you will need to prove $4,000 was paid by you.

 

  1. Go to federal deductions and credits
  2. Select Expenses and Scholarships
  3. Add the 1098-T or select Edit on the Summary screen.

 

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