I’ll look at the credit. TT says my adjusted gross income was too high. I’ll validate. Thx
Wrong is ok if someone else gave the #s. I can defend that.
It only shows how many years I got the credit. I tho k once for this student. The bonuses shot up the last three years. Maybe next year I’ll get it back. Gonna stink this year in comparison as the second half of last year was a struggle.
Great info. Thx all. .
You mean if your return is wrong because someone else gave you numbers that you didn’t verify, you can defend that? Uh, no, that’s not the way it works. You have made several comments here about wanting to move away from TT, which I applaud. Spend some time doing the return all on your own, relying on IRS pubs to get the instructions and answers to questions. Every U.S. taxpayer should know how the system works and why, but most of us have gotten too lazy (and the complexity of the tax code along with the lobbying efforts of the companies that sell tax software and preparation services are also big problems).
But of course! 
Not difficult to do at a very small school & with no students paying for the upcoming calendar year in the prior calendar year.
Yes, I know if it’s wrong, it’s wrong. I was being sarcastic. But given TT is the leading tax preparation software, you’d get a mulligan i’m sure. Then again, i’ve never been audited and given i only get the standard deduction, there’s zero reason to do so. Unlike many I know or work with, I don’t have an S corp. I’m plane jane.
I can’t understand the tax code. I’m helping my son and trying to do the CA return by hand - and it’s a nightmare. Certain things I know I just can’t figure out.
Bringing in the wife and if that doesn’t work - TT is getting another $45 
Thanks. That info is super helpful and confirms what I originally thought --that unless we’re trying to get tax credits, neither of my kids actually needs the 1098-T form. On the other hand, I don’t have a lot of confidence in one of my daughter’s ability to have kept track of receipts or her expenses. Does she even buy books or does she just read things online? No idea. Too bad that the disorganized daughter is the one who didn’t get a form from her university. I think that I will just advise her to figure out what is taxable by subtracting the tuition & fees from her total grants and call it a day. Better to be conservative than to risk being audited when there is no paper trail for where her refund went.
Most kids are using some sort of digital payment for virtually everything- a pack of gum, a used textbook they bought from a friend. So she doesn’t need to track receipts- a little digging will likely yield the Venmo to the friend for the book, a Paypal payment to Amazon for something from the syllabus, a Zelle to the campus bookstore for the lab supplies.
She’s probably got everything she needs on her phone…
Good point. I’ve told all of my kids to keep twenty dollar bill in their bag or wallet just in case they ever need it, but I am pretty sure that they go months without touching it, and I am positive that none has ever written a paper check in their lives. So you are right, she probably has a digital trail for school expenses.
In doing this last night, I thought my kid owed nothing.
But nope - $61.
Who knew.
I thought the standard deduction was $14,600, etc. and last year hers was close - as she made more than that.
This year she made about $1950 and got $61.
I wondered how?
Turns out if you’re a dependent and made little like her, the Standard Deduction was just $1300 - so I guess it’s good i did her return.
I asked her for her paychecks - no W2 but maybe she can get some of the little federal tax she paid back.
You know, at 22 - they don’t want to pay $61 so if it goes down $2 she’ll feel happy.
Me - that’s 30 minutes of my life i can’t get back.
I’m going to show her next year how turbox tax or whatever software she wants works - i have to do better there.
For dependents, the standard deduction is the greater of 1) $1300 or 2) the earned income plus $450. For the standard deduction calculation, taxable scholarships are considered earned income. Is the $1950 earned income? If so, it seems the standard deduction should be higher.
CDs
I got the scholarship differential to dissipate due to the summer tuition.
It’s interesting - last year she earned it was 17 or 19k and the standard deduction was $13 or $14K.
In a hotel in Louisville so i can look later. It wasn’t the same as I get ($14,600, etc.) but it was well above $10K- per my recollection.
She earned a few hundred bucks too as a server but no W2 because it’s under $600 and I said find your 2nd and final pay stub and she’ like - I don’t have it. I’m sure at most it’d have $5 or $10 in tax on it. Cest la vie.
For others reading this thread. I would strongly suggest your college kids take a personal finance course. Our kids both did and said it was the most valuable real life needed course they took.
In both cases, the courses covered things like tax preparation, retirement accounts, etc. and the importance of keeping good records.
We love our kids dearly, and are always willing to help. But when they had real jobs, they did their own tax returns…state and local…
If you paid U of Neb, that’s who issues the 1098. If you paid the Korean school (or a service) directly, NO 1098 will be issues and thus no inclusion on US tax forms. My daughter went to a study abroad in England and I paid a service in CT, even though the program was through her US school. I spent hours on phone calls to get a 1098 from the school and from the service, and neither would issue it even though the school paid the service with her scholarships and grants, even though all the credits were applied directly to her transcript. According to them, it wasn’t tuition so didn’t go on a 1098, it was just a fee for the program (which included housing, a breakfast per day, tuition, a transportation card, student fees…)
So Turbo Tax is correct that if you didn’t receive a 1098, you can’t include it with the other tuition you did receive 1098s for. Not all foreign tuition is deductible, and if you paid tuition to NE but another fee to the Korean school, that fee may be for things that aren’t QEE (travel, insurance, r&b, that school’s fees). If she used a scholarship for those costs, she will be taxed on them without an offsetting deduction (and the scholarship money was probably included on the 1098 from her main school). Yep, learned that the hard way.
Most employers will issue a W2 on any amount of income. Not required to, but they do because the program is already set to issue the W2/1099. Have her look online if she didn’t receive it in the mail. She may have had taxes withheld too. Same with a bank issuing an interest statement; don’t have to, but they do because the program is the same if the interest is $10 or $1000.
We paid 50/50. I put both in. Turbo tax had a way. Like lots of things turbo tax it was hidden but I found it.
I’ll ask her. She didn’t want to deal. But I’ll ask.
Hidden….where? Please explain this.
You have to use turbo tax to understand. The way they ask questions and then sub questions. Or little boxes to uncheck. I found a thing in small font - any more colleges with no 1098s - buried many screens in.
TT is definitely not full proof. When I moved to TN, it had an income tax. It was quite simple and straightforward. TT never had it right. So I did by hand on the state form which was simple.
So it has issues. There’s an entire thread of issues in fact that people post. Probably for basics it’s great.
I do use TT, and used it when my kids were in college as well.
We have never had an issue with it.
When one of our kids worked in CA as a non-resident, we just used TT to deal with that kid’s two state tax filings (resident and non-resident).
Same when DH worked in a different state than where we reside.
The only time we didn’t use TT was when one of our kids was touring with a band, plus had lived and worked in multiple states. An accountant did that kid’s taxes.
I realize some of TT isn’t all that intuitive, but we have been using it for years (as have you) and know the ins and outs.
Then you’re better with it than me.
The CA taxes are so hard. In TN, at Costco, they only sell federal (no state). Now that I can’t figure out CA, I may have to pay them $45 to add a state. Next year I’ll have my kid buy in CA so the state is included. Or will buy at Costco.com.
Anyway, I got it fine.
And I appreciate all the knowledge people gave.
Thanks