I entered 1098-T as: Box 1 Payments: about $14K; Box 4-Scholarships/grants is $9K. When I submit the summary shows about $5K. That is the difference. Why? We paid $14K

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
April 6, 2025
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It seems that the difference between payments and scholarships is what is being used as the tuition we paid. However we paid the "payments" in box 1. If box 1 was total tuition and that was reduced by scholarships, that would make sense. But, payments clearly equals what was paid, not tuition.

Hal_Al

Employee

At tax time, "payments" are irrelevant. What matters is what are you qualified expenses. TurboTax assumes (and rightfully so) that the difference between box 5 and box 1 is the net tuition expense not covered by (allocated to) scholarship.

If the scholarship was not restricted to being used for tuition, you have the option of re-allocating it to other expenses (primarily room & board [R&B]), to free up more tuition for the credit.

But, it only takes $4000 of net tuition to claim the maximum amount of the American Opportunity Credit (AOC). And you have that much already, so there should not be any concern. R&B are not qualified expenses for the AOC or the other credit or tax free scholarship.

" If box 1 was total tuition"

Box 1 is almost always total tuition & fees, and nothing else. Anything else is a mistake on the school's part. It's more likely you are misunderstanding the 1098-T.