Is it normal for a recent graduate to owe money in taxes if they received a lot in grants from the state and federal government for school in a year they weren't billed in?

If you are certain that you made tuition and fees payments in 2016 from your own funds or student loan proceeds, and these amounts are not reported on Form 1098-T, please pay particular attention to Step 5 in the following instructions.

1. Open (continue) your return in TurboTax, if it's not already open.
2. In the search box, search for 1098-T or 1098T (lower-case works also) and then click the "Jump to" link in the search results.
3. Answer Yes to Do you want to enter your higher education expenses?

• If you land on the Let's estimate how much you could get this year, click Skip this.
• If you land on the Your Education Expenses Summary screen, first select Edit next to an existing student or select Add a new one before proceeding.

• If any boxes on your 1098-T are blank, leave them blank. Don't enter 0 (this may cause errors later).
• If boxes 1 or 2 on your 1098-T form are wrong, enter those amounts anyway. Then click What if this is not what I paid? right below box 2 and enter the correct amount of tuition paid.
• Don't include grants not already listed in Box 5. We'll ask about those later.