Question

How do I report Employer Educational Assistance on my Return

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 1, 2019
2 replies
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I've read many of the "similar" questions on here and am still confused. I received my school's 1098T form, box 1 is blank and box 2 shows I was billed 24,750. My employer pays for this FULLY, and specifically, each semester sends 50% directly to the school at the beginning of each semester and 50% directly to me after. Because 50% goes directly to the school, the school has listed that as scholarship/grant money in box 5 for approximately 15,000. My employer w-2 DOES NOT include any of this in my wages/income in box 1. So I dont understand what I can claim, what deductions if any I get, and if I need to report extra income over $5,250 and if so where.

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Hal_Al

Employee

Your employer is doing it wrong. As you apparently know, he can only give you $5250 tax free. The rest must be included on your W-2.
You cannot the tuition credit for tuition paid with tax free money. You can claim tuition paid with money that you have been taxed on, even if classified as Employer Educational Assistance.

M

mglauner

If your employer pays 100% of your tuition, then you have no 'out of pocket' tuition expenses to claim. However, it sounds like your 1098-T reflects Scholarship amount of less than Tution Paid, so it looks like you paid $9750 'out of pocket'.

In the Education interview, there is a place you can enter Employer Provided Assistance (see screenshot). If your employer had added the assistance to your W-2 wages, you would then claim expenses against the income, but since they did not, you basically don't have anything to claim.

Of course, Additional Expenses like books, or required fees (outside of tuition) that you may have paid 'out of pocket' could be added in this section.