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January 26, 2021
Question

It says room and board is not qualified as an expense then is asking if i paid room and board with the grant money im not sure if i do put my info in what documentation

  • January 26, 2021
  • 2 replies
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is needed in order to do this

2 replies

RayW7
January 26, 2021

Grants are a form of gift money that students don’t have to pay back. Grants can be used to pay for living expenses, as well as college tuition.
 

If your grant is a specific housing allowance or housing grant, you will need to apply that directly to your room and board costs. Much of the time, grants for college expenses are flexible: As the student, you can put them toward what you need to live while attending school. 

 

 

Hal_Al
Employee
January 26, 2021

Scholarships (grants) that pay for qualified expenses (Tuition, fees, books and required course materials)  are tax free.  Grans that pay for living expenses, including on campus room and board (R&B) are taxable income to the student.

TurboTax asks this question to determine how much of your grant is taxable.  Note that by applying more of the grant to R&B, frees up more of the tuition to be applied to the tuition credit. 

 

Using an example; box 5 of your 1098-T is $6000, box 1 is $7000.  This means you only have $1000 of tuition to be used  to claim a tuition credit.  But, if you tell TurboTax (TT) that you used $3000 of that $6000 for R&B, that leaves you $4000 of tuition to clam the tuition credit.  Sure, you now have $3000 of taxable income to report, but for most students claiming the credit is much more advantageous.