"T. James Selwyn" <Spam_I_Am[at]eggsNspam.invalid> wrote:

- quote -

If you paid the bill in 2004, it is a 2004 deduction.

My girlfriends school actually asks each student when they
want the bill to be paid (if they are using loans) so they
can pick the tax year.

bex

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- quote -

Does the IRS attempt to match the numbers on the 1098-T to
the return?

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"T. James Selwyn" <Spam_I_Am[at]eggsNspam.invalid> writes:

- quote -

Ignore any numbers on the 1098-T. You have a 2004 education
expense which you'll deal with on your 2004 return (next
year). They use different rules for preparing the 10980-T
than you do. You use the rules in Publication 970.

Phil Marti
Topeka, KS

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Short history: I'm a grad student. I had 100% non-taxable
tuition support thru 12/03. I never deducted "qualified
expenses" b/c they were always offset by aid. My 1098-T
forms were always blank b/c the issuer chose not to report
the expense & aid figures to the IRS.

In 12/03 my tuition support ceased, and I received a bill
for the winter term that began in 1/04. I paid this bill
after the first of the year, yet my new 1098-T (which
contains numbers for the first time ever) reflects this
payment as a 2003 expense. For all but one of the preceding
terms in CY 2003, tuition is offset by aid, which makes
sense.

But for the winter term beginning in 1/03, only the aid is
listed--they've allocated the corresponding tuition charge
to 2002, which makes my net deductible zero. This is
evidently a "feature" of the college's accounting method:
they bill for winter term in December, but wait until
January to credit any aid. (I never paid any attention to
this arbitrary practice before, because it was internal to
the college; I never had to write a check myself until this
month.)

It should be simple: over my entire tenure as a student I
have precisely one non-reimbursed tuition expense, incurred
years after the tax relief act was passed. I should be able
to deduct it somewhere. Yet my 1098-T for 2003 shows
everything breaking even! If I go back and look in 2002 for
the missing money, the pattern repeats: the December tuition
expense (for the winter term starting 1/03) is negated by an
equal subsidy in January (for the winter term starting
1/02), and the terms in between are once more a wash. Each
time the deduction "escapes" into the prior year, and of
course I soon hit the cutoff for filing amended returns.

The one thing I may have going for me is that none of these
prior-year contortions were reported to the IRS--after all,
they got the same blank 1098-T I did through 2002. So,
should I

A) "correct" the latest 1098-T by including the tuition for
the Jan. 2003 term as a 2003 amount so that they zero out,
leaving the current term's expenses as a deduction

OR

B) file an amended 2002 return claiming the 11/02 tuition
bill as a deduction, and let the latest 1098-T stand (ie no
deduction in 2003 or 2004)

OR

C) ignore the entire issue and take no deductions until next
year, when I can deduct the only expense I ever actually
wrote a check for in the year I actually paid it (i.e.,
2004)?

Sorry for the length,

Jim S.

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