Who sends it and when
Colleges, universities, and other schools eligible for federal student aid have to send you a Form 1098-T by Jan. 31 if you paid QTRE during the year. However, the following exceptions apply:
- Your qualified tuition and related expenses are entirely waived or fully paid with scholarships.
- Courses for which no academic credit is offered.
- You’re a nonresident alien student.
- An employer or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs paid your tuition in full with a formal billing arrangement and no separate financial account for the student.
What’s on the form
Form 1098-T has ten boxes, but two matter most for your taxes.
| Box | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Box 1 | Payments your school received for QTRE during the year |
| Box 5 | Scholarships and grants applied to your account |
Box 1 and Box 5 give you the raw dollar figures, but the remaining boxes determine which credit you qualify for, which tax year the expenses belong to, and whether you owe money back from a prior year.
What it means for your taxes
Box 1 and Box 5 provide a starting point for figuring your education expenses, but you shouldn’t simply subtract one from the other. Depending on your situation, you may need to account for additional qualified expenses, scholarships used for nonqualified expenses, or other adjustments when calculating an education credit.
By reviewing Box 1 and Box 5 and getting a general sense of what you paid out of pocket, you can use this to support eligibility for education credits, including the AOTC or LLC.
What to do if you didn’t receive Form 1098-T
Most colleges now deliver 1098-T forms electronically by default rather than mailing paper copies. The document can generally be located in a tax-document section of the student account/billing system. If you didn’t get a 1098-T form, you can still claim a credit as long as you have your own records of what you paid. You may not receive Form 1098-T if scholarships covered your full cost or one of the exceptions listed above applies to you.
