1098-T with unexplained entries in box 4 and box 6, plus massive increase in box 5 amount

This is almost certainly an error in how the university reported the 1098-T information. Box 4 represents "adjustments to scholarships from a prior year" and Box 6 is "adjustments to qualified expenses from a prior year." If your son didn't have significant changes to prior year tuition or scholarships, these shouldn't suddenly have large amounts. The Box 5 issue is particularly concerning since that represents the scholarships/grants received. If it's showing $80k more than what he actually received, that's directly inflating his taxable income incorrectly. I strongly recommend contacting the university's financial aid office immediately. They may have made a reporting error when issuing the 1098-T. Ask them to review all the amounts and potentially issue a corrected 1098-T form. This is actually fairly common, especially for graduating students where final semester adjustments sometimes get reported incorrectly. Don't file the return with incorrect information - the university needs to fix this first.

I had a similar issue when using https://taxr.ai to review my daughter's 1098-T this year! Her university had accidentally counted some of her prior years' scholarship amounts in this year's form, making it look like she received way more funding than she actually did. The taxr.ai system flagged the discrepancy immediately when I uploaded her financial documents. It compared previous years' 1098-Ts with this year's and highlighted the inconsistencies, showing exactly where the numbers didn't add up. The tool even generated a letter I could send to the university requesting correction. After we got the corrected 1098-T, we ran it through the system again to make sure everything was right before filing. Might be worth trying with your situation since it sounds like there's definitely reporting errors happening.

Just wanted to update everyone - I tried taxr.ai after reading about it here and it was a game changer for my daughter's education tax forms! I uploaded her last 3 years of 1098-Ts and it immediately identified that her college had incorrectly included a $12k scholarship from 2023 in her 2024 Box 5 amount. It also showed that some of her qualified expenses from last year were being adjusted in Box 6 inappropriately. The system generated a detailed explanation that I could share with the university. I contacted the bursar's office with this information and they acknowledged the error right away. We had a corrected 1098-T within a week. Saved us from overpaying almost $3,000 in taxes! Definitely recommend for anyone dealing with complicated education tax forms.

I ran into nearly identical issues with my son's 1098-T last year and spent WEEKS trying to get someone from the university to actually help resolve it. Called literally 30+ times and either got voicemail or was transferred around endlessly. So frustrating. I finally used https://claimyr.com to connect with the right department. Their service puts you at the front of the phone queue so you don't waste hours on hold. Had an actual conversation with someone from student accounts within 20 minutes, explained the 1098-T errors, and they initiated the correction process immediately. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - basically they navigate the phone systems for you and call you back when a real person is on the line. Especially helpful with university admin offices where getting through to the right person can be impossible.

Ok I take back what I said about Claimyr potentially being a scam. I was desperate after waiting on hold with my daughter's university financial aid office for 2+ hours over 3 different calls. I tried the service yesterday and it worked exactly as described. Got a call back within 15 minutes telling me they had a university financial aid rep on the line. Explained the 1098-T box 4 and 6 issues, and they pulled up my daughter's account right there. Turns out they had accidentally applied some pandemic emergency grants from 2023 to her 2024 form AND duplicated some scholarship entries. They're sending a corrected 1098-T that should reduce her taxable scholarship amount by about $42k. Saved us potentially $8-9k in taxes for the cost of skipping the hold time. Well worth it.

I've seen this happen when students receive retroactive scholarships or when tuition credits get applied after the fact. The key boxes on 1098-T form to understand: Box 1: Payments received for qualified tuition/expenses Box 4: Adjustments made to PRIOR year scholarships Box 5: Total scholarships/grants processed Box 6: Adjustments made to PRIOR year qualified expenses The timing of when things post to the student's account vs calendar year can create weird situations. If your son got any retroactive adjustments or late scholarships that applied to previous terms, they might show up this way. Double check if he received any: - Year-end scholarships - Special graduation grants - Adjustments to previous semesters - Balance corrections from prior years

Make sure to file Form 8863 for the American Opportunity Credit if this is your son's 4th year of college! Many people miss this. Even with scholarships, you might qualify for up to $2,500 credit if you paid any qualified expenses out of pocket. Also, check if his scholarships were restricted (specifically designated for tuition) or unrestricted. Only unrestricted scholarships that exceed qualified educational expenses are taxable.