Tax return question: education/tuition question

[singitalto]

Hi all, I've asked everyone I know and I can't find the answer to this question, so I figured I'd ask here.
My daughter is in her first year of college(Community College). We received grants that covered the tuition and a tad of the books. When I received the tuition statement (T-1098)from school this is what was posted. Tuition was billed in August, the grants were posted in Sept. Then The spring semester was billed in December but the grants were posted in January. Because of the way everything was billed and posted, my tuition statement has 2 semesters of tuition but only one of grants- which makes it look like we paid a semester out of pocket. Because of this deadline- when we fill out the tax return it looks like we paid for a semester. Because of the Education credit, this helps me out.Is this the kind of thing that will just even out next year??? I don't want to take the credit if I'm not entitled to it. On paper it looks like this is how to report 2010 tuition and grants.
Anyone know????

 

[LoriKutchey]

Hmmm good question, probably if you call the financial aid office at the college they would give you the most educated answer.
Going to the accountants tomorrow and our daughter is in her first year of college also, just finished getting all her paperwork together.
Good Luck

 

[delmar411]

There should be a box on the form that is checked saying includes amounts for next year (something similar to that). I'm not sure how that is treated in taxes since we just filled in the info using tax software but there was a place to check that box.

 

[Sadie22]

I'm not sure I understand the situation. I'm giving a general answer. You cannot take credit for or deduct money that you did not actually pay, so unless money is actually paid to a college for tuition (or required fees as defined by the IRS), there is no credit or deduction. See irs.gov for more information.

 

[Lorix2]

Our DD is in her 1st year of college too and we have not yet begun to pay on the tuition as we had it deferred. H&R block told us we are entitled to the education credit because the funds were disbursed in this calendar year regardless if we have paid on them yet. I questioned the rep about it too because it didn't sound right, but I do not know tax law and they claim to be the experts. Same thing will happen for our tax return 2011/2012.

It made a huge difference in our refund.

 

[kamik86]

Money paid for tuition is tax deductable and money for room and board isn't if I remember correctly. However since I had a bunch of scholarships and then paid some out of pocket we just decided the scholarships were for room and board and we paid the tuition (my school didn't specify anything like what money went where) so we could take a credit for what we paid in.

Now with my grad school I still get the form by my work pays the bill. If I put the form in as it was last year I would have gotten a huge extra refund because the school billed money that I hadn't yet received in scholarships (as work hadn't paid yet) so from the form it looked like I paid alot of it. However this year those scholarships went though so I would have owed it all back. I just ignored the form both years though since really I just completely break even.

 

[tmccullough]

You should have received an official tax document from the school for the year 2010. That's odd the way they posted it in January. My daughter's tax document listed it all in 2010. I would definitely talk to a tax preparer but it sounds like what is listed in 2010 on the document is for that tax year and the grants,etc. would be counted in 2011 which stinks unless next January they do the same thing for next Fall's grants - maybe then it won't hurt you for tax year 2011 having to claim more grants,etc.