Re: 1098-T reporting for 2002

From: Brian T. Kaspar (Brian.T.Kaspar@hofstra.edu)
Date: Wed Nov 20 2002 - 16:49:09 EST

  • Next message: Jenny Getsinger: "RE: Interest on past due balances"

    >>> Doug Ackley <RDA@andy.lan.ksu.edu> 11/20/02 04:03PM >>>
    In my opinion, you should go ahead and include any tuition
    assessed for the Fall 2002 or Spring 2003 semester regardless of
    whether it has been billed or not. Nowhere on the 1098-T will the
    IRS be able to tell if a student/parent actually paid anything toward
    the tuition (except through scholarships or grants....and even then
    the IRS won't know if scholarships or grants were all for one
    semester or spread over all semesters). Therefore, the taxpayer is
    going to have to report to IRS amount paid out of pocket for
    tuition/fees and the only way the IRS is going to be able to verify
    that is through an audit (or we schools may be busy answering IRS
    inquiries).

    For example, if you report tuition/fees billed on 1098-T as $5,000
    and Scholarships/Grants as $5,000, how will feds know how the
    scholarships were applied? Could the $5,000 in scholarships have
    been awarded all in the Fall 2002 semester and the student paid
    his/her own tuition in the Spring 2002 semester? If so, the
    student/parent may indicate on tax return that they paid, let's say,
    $2000 toward tuition and fees, which they did in the Spring 2002
    Semester. But how is IRS going to verify that info? Is IRS going to
    see that the student has more Scholarships and Grants than total
    tuition billed and not allow any tax credits even though
    student/parents paid $2000 out of pocket in the Spring 2000
    semester?

    Or a much simpler case, you report on 1098-T that tuition billed
    was $5,000, no scholarships/grants. The taxpayer reports $5,000
    paid for tuition/fees out of pocket.....how will IRS know based on
    what you sent them on 1098-T, whether or not the taxpayer
    actually did pay?

    So, back to your original question......I would go ahead and report
    the amount of tuition/fees assesed on 1098-T because the
    student/parent may pay you without being billed and if you have not
    included that amount billed on the 1098-T, the student/parent will
    be upset. If you report the assessed but unbilled tuition and the
    student does not pay by the end of CY2002, no harm done.

    We are waiting until next year to put any figures on our 1098-T
    forms. There is still a lot to learn from others experiences and we
    hope those of you that do report figures will share those
    experiences with us in the coming year.

    Best of luck to all of us!

    Date sent: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 11:57:30 -0500
    To: bursar-l@virginia.edu
    From: Bruce Forinash <baforina@gw.fis.ncsu.edu>
    Subject: 1098-T reporting for 2002

    >
    > Are there any brave souls out there that are considering early adoption
    > of the new IRS rules for the 1098-T?
    >
    > We plan to adopt the recently released requirements for 2002, and
    > report amounts Billed rather than payments received. One of the
    > decisions we must make is whether a charge is "Billed" (to use the IRS
    > term) when it is presented to the student on a physical bill, or when
    > the transaction occurs and is posted to the student account. For
    > example, December registration activity will show on student accounts in
    > December (in our records and on the web), but not actually be billed
    > until January. Which reporting period should it show in?
    >
    > I don't think this is a trick question, and maybe I'm thinking about it
    > too much, but I would appreciate any clarifying thoughts anyone would
    > care to share.
    >
    > bruce
    >
    >
    >
    > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    > Bruce Forinash
    > Director, University Cashier's Office
    > NC State University
    > 2005 Harris Hall
    > Campus Box 7213
    > Raleigh, NC 27695
    > 919.515.6010 (office)
    > 919.515.1164 (fax)
    > bruce_forinash@ncsu.edu
    >

    R. Douglas Ackley
    Assistant Controller for Cashiering and Student Loans
    211 Anderson Hall
    Kansas State University
    Manhattan, KS 66506
    (785) 532-1820
    email: rda@andy.lan.ksu.edu
    FAX: (785) 532-5632



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Nov 20 2002 - 16:54:39 EST