Student Financial Services

Purchase College Federal Id number: 16-1514621

Box 1 Shows the total payments received by an eligible educational institution in the tax year from any source for qualified tuition and related expenses less any reimbursements or refunds made during the tax year that relate to those payments received during the tax year

Purchase College can only include payments towards the following in Box 1*:

• Tuition
• Activity Fee
• Campus Service Fee
• Technology Fee
• College Fee
• Athletic Fee
• Transcript Fee
• Course Fees

*As payments towards housing, meal plans, and other fees are not common to all SUNY schools, and are not mandatory for enrollment or attendance, Purchase College cannot report this information. Please speak with a tax professional for further inquiries regarding the possibility of claiming these payments on your tax return.

For more on Qualified Education Expenses, please visit the IRS website, here.

The 1098-T counts transactions in Box 1 that occur during the calendar year and for Qualified Education Expenses which do not include some fees, housing and meal plans. The spring 2021 session, although occurring within the 2022 year, is billed during the 2021 calendar year and is considered as a calculation on your 2021 1098T year. If there is an unreported charges billed in 2021 it is carried over to 2022.

Below is an example that can hopefully help explain the calculation.

2021	Eligible Charges	Eligible Payments
Maximum amount reported in Box 1 for 2021 cannot exceed eligible Charges. So the amount in Box 1 is reported as $9,000
Summer 2021	Did not attend	Did not attend
Fall 2021	$4,000	$6,000
Spring 2022 ( Billed in Dec. 2021)	$5,000	$8,000
Total	$9,000	$14,000

 

2022	Eligible Charges	Eligible Payments
Maximum amount reported in Box 1 for 2021 cannot exceed eligible Charges. In this case, a 1098T will not be generated unless there are amounts to report in Box 5.
Spring 2022	Counted in 2021 1098-T	$5,000
Summer 2022	Did not attend	Did not attend
Fall 2022	Did not attend	Did not attend
Spring 2023 ( Billed in Dec. 2022)	Did not attend	Did not attend
Total	$0	$5,000

Please note: When claiming educational credits and deductions on your income tax return, you will need to report amounts paid and your eBills will be the best and most helpful resources for purposes of determining your allowable education tax credits or deductions.

In previous years, your 1098-T included a figure in Box 2 that represented the qualified tuition and related expenses (QTRE) we billed to your student account for the calendar (tax) year. Due to a change to institutional reporting requirements under federal law, beginning with tax year 2018, we will report in Box 1 the amount of QTRE you paid during the year.

Depending on your income (or your family’s income, if you are a dependent), whether you were considered full or half-time enrolled, and the amount of your qualified educational expenses for the year, you may be eligible for a federal education tax credit. (You can find detailed information about claiming education tax credits in IRS Publication 970, page 9.)

The dollar amounts reported on your Form 1098-T may assist you in completing IRS Form 8863 – the form used for calculating the education tax credits that a taxpayer may claim as part of your tax return.

Purchase College is unable to provide you with individual tax advice, but should you have questions, you should seek the counsel of an informed tax preparer or adviser.

For more information about Form 1098-T, visit https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1098t.pdf.

What is box 5?

Reports the total amount of grants and scholarships (no loans) and third party payments if applicable.

Third party payments:

Payments made by a third party under a formal billing arrangement (i.e., outside scholarships, employer provided educational assistance, military, etc.) which have been administered by the College. If you received other forms of outside scholarships and grants not administered by SUNY Purchase College it is your responsibility to adjust the figure accordingly.

Third party payments do not include payments made by your parent, other individuals, or AmeriCorps

 

HEERF I (CARES), HEERF II (CRRSAA), and HEERF III (ARP) are not reported. 

HEERF I (CARES), HEERF II (CRRSAA), and HEERF III (ARP) emergency grants are not included in Box 5 since these are direct payments to students and not part of financial aid grants.

“…the IRS clarifies for colleges and universities that there is no special requirement to report student emergency grants on the 2021 Form 1098-T.”

 

A 1098-T Form is not required to be provided for the following exception:

1. Courses for which no academic credit is offered, even if the student is otherwise enrolled in a degree program.
2. You did not provide a SSN or TIN to Purchase College. Student Financial Services sends out emails to students who have an incorrect or missing SSN or TIN.  If a student does not follow the guidelines in the email, a 1098-T is not mailed to the student by our third party 1098-T provider. 

Several new tax benefits are available to help families meet the cost of postsecondary education. These tax benefits are intended to help students and their parents as well as all working Americans to fulfill a variety of educational objectives.

The federal government provides two main tax benefits, in the form of tax credits. These are:

1. American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC)
2. Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC)

Please read the sections below to learn more about these credits and visit this webpage for extensive details.

Taxpayers can claim one of the tax credits if they are eligible, reducing the expenses of putting themselves or their children through college. These tax credits can directly reduce the amount of federal income tax for returns filed in 1999 or later. The Hope Scholarship Credit is available on a per-student basis for the first two years of post-secondary education, while the Lifetime Learning Credit applies on a tax-return basis and covers a broader time frame and range of educational courses. Education expenses paid for with tax-free grants, scholarships, and employer-education assistance are not eligible for either tax credit. Education expenses paid with loans are eligible for these tax credits.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), more parents and students qualify for a tax credit, the American opportunity credit, to pay for college expenses.

The American opportunity credit originally modified the existing Hope credit for tax years 2009 and 2010, and was later extended for an additional two years — 2011 and 2012 — making the benefit available to a broader range of taxpayers, including many with higher incomes and those who owe no tax. It also adds required course materials to the list of qualifying expenses and allows the credit to be claimed for four post-secondary education years instead of two. Many of those eligible qualify for the maximum annual credit of $2,500 per student.

The full credit is available to individuals whose modified adjusted gross income is $80,000 or less, or $160,000 or less for married couples filing a joint return. The credit is phased out for taxpayers with incomes above these levels. These income limits are higher than under the existing Hope and lifetime learning credits.

For more information about the American Opportunity Tax Credit click here.

For the tax year, you may be able to claim a lifetime learning credit of up to $2,000 for qualified education expenses paid for all students enrolled in eligible educational institutions. There is no limit on the number of years the lifetime learning credit can be claimed for each student. However, a taxpayer cannot claim both the Hope or American opportunity credit and lifetime learning credits for the same student in one year. Thus, the lifetime learning credit may be particularly helpful to graduate students, students who are only taking one course and those who are not pursuing a degree.

If you’re eligible to claim the lifetime learning credit and are also eligible to claim the Hope or American opportunity credit for the same student in the same year, you can choose to claim either credit, but not both.

If you pay qualified education expenses for more than one student in the same year, you can choose to take credits on a per-student, per-year basis. This means that, for example, you can claim the Hope or American opportunity credit for one student and the lifetime learning credit for another student in the same year.

You may be able to deduct qualified education expenses paid during the year for yourself, your spouse or your dependent. You cannot claim this deduction if your filing status is married filing separately or if another person can claim an exemption for you as a dependent on his or her tax return. The qualified expenses must be for higher education. For more on Qualified Education Expenses, please visit the IRS website, here.

The tuition and fees deduction can reduce the amount of your income subject to tax. This deduction reported on Form 8917: Tuition and Fees Deduction is taken as an adjustment to income. This means you can claim this deduction even if you do not itemize deductions on a Schedule A from your Form 1040. This deduction may be beneficial to you if, for example, you cannot take the lifetime learning credit because your income is too high. For more information, please visit the Tax Benefits for Education: Information Center from the IRS here

You may be able to take one of the education credits for your education expenses instead of a tuition and fees deduction. You can choose the one that will give you the lower tax.

Generally, personal interest you pay, other than certain mortgage interest, is not deductible on your tax return. However, if your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is less than $75,000 ($150,000 if filing a joint return), there is a special deduction allowed for paying interest on a student loan (also known as an education loan) used for higher education. Student loan interest is interest you paid during the year on a qualified student loan. It includes both required and voluntary interest payments.

For most taxpayers, MAGI is the adjusted gross income as figured on their federal income tax return before subtracting any deduction for student loan interest. This deduction can reduce the amount of your income subject to tax by up to $2,500.

The student loan interest deduction is taken as an adjustment to income. This means you can claim this deduction even if you do not itemize deductions on Form 1040’s Schedule A.

Please review the section on Deductions in the Tax Benefits for Education: Information Center from the IRS here for more information about what is a qualified student loan & qualified education expenses.