Skip to main content
June 29, 2023
Question

College tuition was paid with an inherited trust fund, is that deuctible or just the 1098-T amount?

  • June 29, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views
No text available

2 replies

Hal_Al
Employee
June 29, 2023

Q.  College tuition was paid with an inherited trust fund, does that qualify for the tuition credit?

A. Yes.

Although the general rule, in taxes, is that you must be the one making the payment, to get the deduction or credit, there is an exception for education. As long as you, your spouse or your dependent is the student, you may use all qualified expenses paid, to claim the education credit.  You may not claim expenses paid with tax free money (e.g. scholarships, employer assistance, 529 plans).  

Carl11_2
Employee
July 9, 2023

College tuition was paid with an inherited trust fund, is that deuctible or just the 1098-T amount?

The fact money came from a trust fund may not be relevant. But you don't say what the trust fund was for, who the beneficiary is, or anything about said trust fund. Also don't know if the education expenses are for you, a spouse, a dependent, or someone else. So a de-facto answer is not really possible with a degree of certainty in it's accuracy.

Typically, you can only deduct from taxable income, those "qualified" education expenses that were paid out of pocket that would be taxable otherwise, and not by scholarships, grants, 529 distributions or any other third party source of income.