Reporting excess grants when unemployed

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 4, 2021
1 reply
0 views

Hello. So I received over $1000 in excess grants last year, and I only used a portion of it to pay for necessary school items. I understand the portion I didn't use for necessary school items is considered taxable income, but I am not sure how to report it via TurboTax. I am unemployed. The only other taxable income I have to report is my unemployment compensation. I also never received a 1098 T, presumably because it wasn't necessary in my case. So can someone please tell me how exactly to report these excess grants?

TurboTax Free Edition Online

linaj20201

You will still go through the Form 1098-T path. See steps below. Instead of telling the program you received a Form 1098-T, you will check No to that question. Follow prompts to enter your tuition and grant amount. The program will do the math for you. For example, your tuition amount is $5,000, your grant amount is $6000. The program will calculate the $1000 as a taxable event. It will show on line 1 of your Form 1040 as SCH.

In TurboTax online,

Sign in to your account, select Pick up where you left off
At the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "1098t" and Enter
Select Jump to 1098t
Follow prompts

As you understand, your grant or scholarship amount is only nontaxable if all of it used to cover your qualified education amount including books and supplies. If you have an excess amount of grant that is not used to pay for the education expenses, that portion will be taxable. To learn more, click here: Scholarship taxable?