1098 T

[AZ-Tax]

Box 2: $8210 Box 1: $0 W-2 YTD summary tution reimbursed: $3510

Now, this is obvious but why no amt in Box 1? Possible reasons:

1. Amt paid to employee and employee never paid college
2. Amt paid in 2011 to employee therefore will not appear on 2010 1098T (I was curious on this one. Is it then reported on employees 2010 tax return even thou its under the $5250 excludable taxable tuition reimbursement?)

Also, seems to me this $3510 shoud be reported within the form 1098T worksheet or statement as a reimbursement but upon looking at it, I see no line for "employer tution reimburement". How do you guy treat this?

[FEDUKE404]

This is standard practice

Now, this is obvious but why no amt in Box 1? Possible reasons:

1. Amt paid to employee and employee never paid college
2. Amt paid in 2011 to employee therefore will not appear on 2010 1098T (I was curious on this one. Is it then reported on employees 2010 tax return even thou its under the $5250 excludable taxable tuition reimbursement?)

Also, seems to me this $3510 shoud be reported within the form 1098T worksheet or statement as a reimbursement but upon looking at it, I see no line for "employer tution reimburement". How do you guy treat this?

The most logical explanation is that schools apparently NEVER bother to report "paid" but instead now report "billed." Doing so makes life much simpler for them, and IRS rules allow the school to choose which box it completes.

While there may be valid charges for a potential education credit, the fact that those charges were paid by someone other than the taxpayer (scholarship, employer, but NOT via loan) would offset any otherwise allowable charges that could be used.

Bottom line: If charges are correct, and employer paid them (or even paid them to the employee who actually paid the school), AND nothing shows up on W2 from that employer re reimbursement, I would (essentially) ignore the Form 1098-T and move onward. This assumes, of course, that you have the real facts at hand about school expenses and are not merely relying upon the essentially useless Form 1098-T.

FE