Received a scholarship for 13804, box 7 is checked on 1098-T to be paid January to March 2017

The 1098-T is only any informational document. The numbers on it are not required to be entered onto your tax return. However receipt of a 1098-T frequently means you are either eligible for a tuition credit or deduction or possibly your student has taxable scholarship income. 

 If you know that none of your scholarship is taxable and you have no expenses to claim, just don't enter the 1098-T.

If you do need to enter it, you are correct that the fact that the scholarship will be applied to 2017, means you do not have to report it on your 2016 return. But you will have to use a work around in TurboTax. The easiest thing is to adjust box 5 to what it should be.

You claim the tuition credit, or report scholarship income, based on your own financial records, not the 1098-T. In the 1098-T screen, click on the link "What if this is not what I paid the school" underneath box 2. You will then be able to enter the actual amounts paid. 

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 There is a tax “loophole” available. The student reports all his scholarship, up to the amount needed to claim the American opportunity credit, as income on his return. That way, the parents can claim the tuition credit on their return. They can do this because that much tuition was no longer paid by "tax free" scholarship.  You cannot do this if the school’s billing statement specifically shows the scholarships being applied to tuition or if the conditions of the grant are that it be used to pay for qualified expenses.

Using an example: Student has $10,000 in box 5 of the 1098-T and $8000 in box 2. At first glance he/she has $2000 of taxable income and nobody can claim the American opportunity credit. But if she reports $6000 as income on her return, the parents can claim $4000 of qualified expenses on their return.