FORM 1098-T - INCORRECT DATA - SCHOOL WILL NOTSOLVE IT

[fooster9999]

Hello, I received my form for 1098-T and I am having following issues:

My 1098-T:

Box #1 (Includes the tuition expenses for Spring 2020/Summer 2020/Fall 2020) -  $12,000

Box #5 (Includes grants/federal aid/state aid for Summer/Fall in 2019 and Spring/Summer/Fall in 2020)

- $19,000

*Box #5 should be $13,000 and include only aid received in 2020 only

Because of such a high difference between the aid received and tuition paid, now I have to pay IRS almost $2,000 and I don't have money. This is the first time, I am doing my income tax as well.

The school says it will not correct the form because aid for Summer/Fall from 2019 was received in January 2020 as a result of my late application. 

Any thoughts? 

[ThomasM125]

I think what you are saying is that the scholarship income was received in 2020, but belonged in 2019 because it paid the tuition for that year.

If so, you can adjust your return by entering a negative adjustment to Other Income to cancel out the income from the excess scholarship reported. If you do this, you should mail your return in and attach an explanation as to why you made the adjustment.

If you received an education credit in 2019, you will need to amend that return to reflect the scholarship income reported in 2020 if you didn't already.

You can make the adjustment to Other Income by using these menu tabs in TurboTax:

1. Federal
2. Income and expenses
3. Less common income
4. Miscellaneous income
5. Other reportable income

Enter a description for the entry (invalid SI reported?)  and the amount as a negative number.

[fooster9999]

Thanks for the reply Thomas.  I understand if I follow your guidelines I won't be able to e-file my income taxes.

The other thing is that if my form 1098-T was correct I would quality for EDUCATION TAX BREAK which almost gives $2,500 return. If I decide to go with the current form of 1098-T that I have, I will basically loose that.

[ThomasM125]

You can e-file your 2020 tax return, reporting the form 1098-T as is should be and leave the note off of it if you want. The only problem is that the IRS may come back later and deny the education credit and assess taxes based on the scholarship income that you report versus what is on the form 1098-T.

However, if that happened, you would have an opportunity to write them a response explaining what happened and that should resolve the issue.

[fanfare]

IRS says:

"don't attach extraneous notes unless required to do so."