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Question

If I pay for school in december (for the next semester) what year do I claim the expenses on my taxes?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
June 6, 2019
6 replies
0 views

Heres the deal, my son started school last fall. I received a 1099 t for the fall semester. I paid his tuition etc for the spring semester in Jan. Do I claim the spring semester on this years taxes, or next years? (the 1099t only covers fall) Thanks for the help!

TurboTax Deluxe Online

MichaelMc

Employee

The general rule is that you can deduct (or use as the basis for a credit) on your income tax return those qualified educational expenses that you actually paid in that tax year, for attendance at an eligible educational institution during that tax year.

However, there is an exception (to allow for the way colleges actually register students for classes and issue bills) that you can deduct amounts paid in a tax year, for an academic period beginning in the first three months of the next tax year.

In your case, you can deduct the amounts paid in 2016 for you student's Fall semester. You cannot claim on your 2016 tax return the amounts paid in January 2017 for the Spring semester; those will be included on your 2017 tax return.

If you had paid for the Spring semester in December 2016, you could have claimed those amounts on your 2016 tax return.

s_chun

Is there an option to take the deduction in 2017 in this case? My case is that I paid for college on 12/28/15 for 2016 Spring semester and would like to take the credit in 2016 since it was not taken in 2015.

sayanything29

So my daughter bought all her supplies in December. Started RN program in January. How do you answer question about being a full time student in 2020? If she didn’t start till January but you said you can claim stuff if she started first three months of 2021?

norhanag

Hi,

I am trying to figure out how I can avoid including my scholarships and grants as taxable income. For my 2020 1098-T, I have $85 of tuition fees because my school "billed" me in December 2019 for a majority of my Spring 2020 tuition and included it on my 2019 1098-T. My scholarships were applied in my Spring 2020 semester against that tuition, so I technically did not pay or have any scholarships as taxable income. When doing my taxes right now, it is counting all $20k of scholarships and grants as taxable income because I did not have tuition expenses that covered them on the 1098-T. Can I use the edit option to put the tuition billed in December 2019 to prevent my scholarships being counted as taxable income even though my 1098-T only says $85?

AmyC

Employee

The IRS says money paid is claimed in the year paid. This leads to scholarships paid and used. If you have a paper trail that shows the money was applied then you could. However, since you say tuition was billed in 2019, you can't take a credit for 2019 for bills paid if they were paid in 2020 with the scholarships. Go back to your 2019 return and see if you had the same situation of a carryover or if you need to amend your 2019 so that some of the tuition is actually a part of 2020. Your bursar account shows when things were paid.

The IRS says in Publication 970 (2020), Tax Benefits for Education | IRS: When figuring an education credit or tuition and fees deduction, use only the amounts you paid and are deemed to have paid during the tax year for qualified education expenses.

@norhanag

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SJ-63

I have a similar situation to many folks here. I paid for my daughter's tuition in Dec 2019 for her 2020 spring classes (her final semester), but her 1098-T shows no payments in box 1 and 16K of scholarship in box 5. I have a couple of questions:

1. It seems that for my 2020 taxes, the entire 16K counts as income, is that correct?

2. If so, what is the best way to handle this? Can I have this reported on my daughter's taxes since she pays at a lower rate? My assumption is that I would then not be able to claim her as a dependent.

3. TurboTax asks how much of this was applied to my tuition, can I claim the entire scholarship amount even though I paid the tuition in 2019?

Thanks

Zaldim

Preparing 1040 2021

i was not enrolled as a college student in 2021, and I didn’t get f 1098 T

i paid tuition, books and laptop to use for semester beginning January 2022.
can I deduct these expenses paid in 2021 in f 1040 2021? I didn’t get any form 1098

Thank you for your reply

KrisD15

Yes.

If you did not get a 1098-T you will need to get the EIN from the school to enter the information into the TurboTax program.

According to the IRS:

"The lifetime learning credit is based on qualified education expenses you pay for yourself, your spouse, or a dependent you claim on your tax return. Generally, the credit is allowed for qualified education expenses paid in 2021 for an academic period beginning in 2021 or in the first 3 months of 2022. For example, if you paid $1,500 in December 2021 for qualified tuition for the spring 2022 semester beginning in January 2022, you may be able to use that $1,500 in figuring your 2021 credit."

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EricaW1

My university has sent me a tuition bill in December 2022 for next semester starting in January 2023. Can I pay the bill using 529 distribution taken in 2022? Will this expense shown on 1098T of 2022?

Thanks

Critter-3

Yes you can and yes the 1098-T should reflect the billed tuition and the payments you make.

thneedle

I paid for my Fall 2021 semester in August 2021, and my Spring 2022 Semester in December 2021. On my 2021 taxes last year I was able to claim all of the $2500 credit (tuition was $7000 each semester). Even though I finished school in 2022 is it true that I'm not able to claim the credit on this year's taxes? Am I out $2500 because I paid my tuition two weeks before 2022? really kicking myself for paying $14000 in 2021 when I could have just waited a bit to maximize the credit and get $2500 each year, it all came out of pocket so this hurts 😞

Carl11_2

Employee

Colleges work in academic years, while the IRS works in calendar years. So the reality is, it takes you 5 calendar years to get that 4 year degree. With that said:

- Scholarships and grants are claimed/reported as taxable income (initially) in the year they are received. It does not matter what year that scholarship or grant is *for*

- Tuition and other qualified education expenses are reported/claimed in the tax year they are paid. It does not matter what year they pay *for*.