1098-T College Tuition How College Applied It After COVID

[Hutchy68]

Our son graduated from college last year, 2021. His College didn't issue a 1098-T because they applied a room and board credit from the Fall of 2020 towards his tuition for the Spring of 2021. In the Fall they were all sent home to continue online, so room and board were not necessary.

On all paperwork, bills, and account status, they show his tuition as 29,500. However, they ran a test 1098-T on their system at my request. Essentially, they took the credit of room and board and applied it to the spring tuition lowering the tuition by over $6000 to make it equal to the grants, scholarships, loans, etc. Then we paid for the difference in tuition, room and board. Room and board are not allowed on the 1098-T.

Basically, they traded apples for oranges to their benefit. We are on the losing end of this equation. What do I do? We already claimed the 4 years for his $2500 a year credit and I am not concerned about that. However, the Life Long Learner tax break with books would give us roughly a $1200 tax credit. I can see from the 1098-T for 2020, that there was no adjustment made to tuition. Adding up the numbers they supplied and the credit they applied for tuition I come back to the original number (almost) $29,250. Some creative accounting going on there. Help me, please.

[KrisD15 · Accepted solution]

Enter the 1098-T and under Box 1 is a blue link that says

"What if this is not what was paid to this school' 

Click the link and scroll down to the addition entry area for "Enter the tuition paid"

Enter the total including the credit for room and board. 

Keep school payment records with your tax file. 

Adjustments are available since schools often report erroneous numbers on the 1098-T. 

[Hutchy68]

Thanks, I found the bubble and clicked it. Added the $6036 credit to the tuition which brought it back to $29250 which happens to be the late Feb charge for tuition shown on the payment activity of the account. This has been quite maddening. I knew something was not correct with what was reported. Coincidentally, the tuition shown in Dec and Jan was $29500. Then in Feb, it was changed to $29250 and that adds up correctly to the amount sent to me from their 1098-T reporting system. $23214 + $6036 = $29250. Glad he wasn't a math major there.