can anyone tell me about grants and filing your tax? Forum

[sangr]

hi guys

so it asks us how much our tuition costs us (im using turbo tax to do taxes)

on another section it asks if we got any scholarships or grants

so should we put this in?

Tuition = [TOTAL amount of tuition and room expenses we would have paid] + scholarship amount in the scholarship bracket

OR
when we enter our info should we put:

tuition [TOTAL amount of tuition MINUS scholarship MINUS scholarship or grant] + scholarship amount in the scholarship bracket

im a bit confused because initially i chose the way i put it in option 1, where i only put in the amount i actually paid for tuiton (whatever amount was leftover from the scholarship that i got)

but after i went back and added in the scholarship grant thing, it ended up that I got LESS back.

this seems to not make much sense to me because all I did was add in that i got 20,000 scholarship. so im wondering if i should have put in for the tuition, what i would have paid had i not had a scholarship

any help would be greatly appreciated guys

thanks

[Tiago Splitter]

Tuition = [TOTAL amount of tuition and room expenses we would have paid] + scholarship amount in the scholarship bracket

OR
when we enter our info should we put:

tuition [TOTAL amount of tuition MINUS scholarship MINUS scholarship or grant] + scholarship amount in the scholarship bracket

These two things aren't the same. It looks like in the second formulation you're double-counting the scholarship.

[hohenheim]

Tuition = [TOTAL amount of tuition and room expenses we would have paid] + scholarship amount in the scholarship bracket

OR
when we enter our info should we put:

tuition [TOTAL amount of tuition MINUS scholarship MINUS scholarship or grant] + scholarship amount in the scholarship bracket

These two things aren't the same. It looks like in the second formulation you're double-counting the scholarship.

For the first entry, you're supposed to enter the value of box 2 on your 10-98T form (aka, the cost of tuition and fees BEFORE your scholarship or grant is applied), plus qualified educational expenses (books, etc.). Room and board are NOT qualified expenses, as far as I know, so you shouldn't be adding those anyway.

For the second entry, you're supposed to enter the value of box 5 on your 10-98T (plus any external scholarships that you didn't declare to the university for whatever reason).

You are not double-counting by doing this (if you end up confused, look at the calculation worksheets just before you file), TurboTax's questions are just very vague on this particular topic.

Have you not filed yet?