Filed under: sznj.com — admin @ October 11, 2008 edit
A tax question.
I graduated from college in May 2001. Due to a tuition dispute with
the University, I didn't pay off the rest of my tuition (left over
after loans and grants and scholarships covered the most of my
tuition) until 2002.
So legitimately speaking, my tuition payment should be filed under
2002 tax return (I think). However, the University refused to give me
a 1098T form for 2002 claiming that I shouldn't receive one since I
was not matriculated during the year 2002.
How would I go about and claim my tax credit for the tuition that I
paid in 2002 without a 1098T form from the University?Nelson,
According to Tax Laws, reporting for these monies MUST be done for the
year during which they were paid/received, and NOT during the year
that they were "incurred/earned".
I would print this 1098T form yourself, fill it out properly, attach a
blunt letter of explanation to the IRS saying that the University has
refused to properly issue you your 1098T, and attach it to your tax
return. Make sure that your letter contains the full name, address,
and telephone contact information for the University. I hope that you
have a credit card receipt, cash receipt, or checking account
statement showing the date of the payment -- you will need to include
a copy of that, too. (Make sure that you keep your original in a safe
place.)
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1098t02.pdf
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-01/p678fs.pdf
(This is an Acrobat .pdf document. If you do not already have Acrobat
installed on your PC, you can download the free Acrobat Reader here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html )
Ignore the warning on this form not to print and file it yourself. AT
THIS LATE DATE, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE.
Then cc: (send a carbon copy to) the University's controller on your
1098T form and letter to the IRS, suggesting that they correct their
records and issue you your rightful 1098T before the IRS decides to do
an audit of them.
When the IRS computers calculate the total of all the 1098Ts claimed
by students of this University, and the University's reported total
does not match the IRS total, it is quite possible that both of you
will be audited. (DO include a statement to this effect in the letter
that you send to the University's controller -- it might scare them
into ponying up the form for you pronto!).
Therefore, you will want to make sure that ALL of your tax records and
receipts for the last 3 years are in order.
Search Strategy
IRS
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=IRS&btnG=Google+Search
Click on the "IRS.gov Home" entry, then click on the "Forms and
Publications" hyperlink UNDER the two Search boxes. On the page that
comes up, click the "Forms and Publications by Number" hyperlink.
Then, scroll down to and click the entry "7-31-02 2002 Form 1098-T
(PDF) Tuition Payments Statement" on the drop-down menu.
A page will come up with the hyperlink to the blank form, as well as a
hyperlink to download Acrobat PDF Reader if you do not already have
it.
Before Rating my Answer, if you have any questions about this
information, please post a Request for Clarification, and I will be
glad to see what I can do for you.
I hope that this Answer has provided exactly the information that you
were seeking!
Regards,
aceresearcheroops!
Nelson, please ignore the second pdf document link; it was included by mistake.
Thanks,
aceAceresearcher,
I have about a couple of more questions on your answer.
1. I would like to see some documentation on the Tax Laws that would
clearly states the University must file 1098T form when tuition is
received (not incurred). I think the link that Nelson sent was clear
enough, but I would like to have another source (and or IRS document)
that would support this.
(Reason why I'm doing this is that there may be a chance for me to
obtain a copy from the University if I can present a couple of thse
docs in front of the person who is responsible for filing this form.)
2. The www.irs.gov/pub/irs-01/p678fs.pdf seems to be instruction on
how to file taxes for non-residents or non-citizens. I don't think
that applies to me. Is there another similiar set of instructions that
would apply to domestic students?
Thanks a bunch!thefirst,
My apologies for previously addressing you by the name of a commenter;
I was obviously looking at the wrong part of your Question when I did
that.
Under the new proposed tax rules, the University is allowed to report
either on the basis of tuition payments received OR tuition billed.
However, even if they changed from the first reporting method to the
second, they are required to report all tuition AT SOME POINT during
their changeover. In other words, they needed to report the tuition
you paid either for 2002, or for the year they billed you, but they
MUST report one of those.
So... you need to pull out your 1098T from the tax year in which they
BILLED you for the disputed tuition amount, and let me know if the
disputed amount was included in your 1098T for that year. If it was,
you CANNOT claim it as a tax deduction for 2002.
<< 2. The http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-01/p678fs.pdf seems to be
instruction on
how to file taxes for non-residents or non-citizens. I don't think
that applies to me. Is there another similiar set of instructions that
would apply to domestic students? >>
That is why I posted the Clarification with the statement "please
ignore the second pdf document link; it was included by mistake".
That document is a Supplement; that means that it is an Additional
document produced by the IRS to further assist non-resident students.
So there is no corresponding document for students who are citizens of
the U.S. The information for those students is on page 32 of the 1040
Instruction Booklet:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf
The IRS website has a section with several examples of filing for
students, which you may find helpful:
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/students/article/0,,id=96798,00.html
Thanks,
aceresearcher