Why am I not getting a refund from my 1098-T forms this year when I filed on FreeTaxUSA?

What you're seeing is likely due to how education credits work with your specific tax situation. When Box 5 (scholarships) exceeds Box 1 (tuition paid), there's no "excess" qualified education expense to claim for credits like the American Opportunity Credit or Lifetime Learning Credit. For your College A, since scholarships ($13,850) exceed tuition paid ($2,465), there's nothing to claim there. For your Community College with $5,750 in Box 1 and $0 in Box 5, you should be eligible to claim credits on those expenses. However, whether you actually receive a benefit depends on your overall tax liability. Your income might have changed from last year, or you might have other credits/deductions affecting your return. Also check if someone can claim you as a dependent this year, as that affects education credit eligibility. Finally, make sure you're on the education credits section in FreeTaxUSA - sometimes you need to manually navigate there.

Hey there! I ran into a similar issue last year with my 1098-T forms and FreeTaxUSA. After hours of frustration, I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which actually helped me understand what was happening with my education credits. I uploaded my 1098-Ts and it broke down exactly why I wasn't getting the credits I expected. In my case, I had to manually tell FreeTaxUSA which expenses were "qualified education expenses" versus other charges. The taxr.ai analysis showed me that some of my Box 1 amounts included housing and meal plan charges that don't qualify for education credits. Once I made those adjustments, I got back over $1,500! Not sure if that's your exact situation, but might be worth checking if there's something specific about how your expenses are being categorized.

Just wanted to update everyone. I decided to try taxr.ai that was mentioned above after struggling with this exact same 1098-T refund issue. Holy cow, it was eye-opening! Turns out our problem was that we were confusing "qualified education expenses" with total billed amounts. The site explained that only certain expenses count toward education credits, and my daughter's housing charges (which were on her student account statement) weren't eligible even though they appeared connected to her tuition payments. I was able to go back to FreeTaxUSA and properly categorize just the qualified expenses, and our refund increased by $1,268! This was money we would have completely missed without understanding the specific rules. Thanks for the recommendation!

I had a similar issue trying to figure out my education credits last month. After spending FOUR HOURS trying to get through to the IRS helpline (kept getting disconnected!), I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. The agent explained that my education credits weren't showing up because I had entered my 1098-T info incorrectly. Apparently FreeTaxUSA requires you to manually allocate the expenses to the right categories, and I had put everything in "other expenses" which doesn't count toward the credit. They have a demo video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - it's basically a service that navigates the IRS phone tree for you and calls you when an agent is ready. Totally changed my tax filing experience.

I have to eat my words. After continuing to fail reaching the IRS about my education credit issues, I broke down and tried that Claimyr service. I was 100% sure it was going to be a waste of money, but I was desperate after spending 3 days trying to get through on my own. It actually worked exactly as described. I got a call back in about 20 minutes, and was connected to an IRS agent who helped me understand why my 1098-T wasn't generating a refund. Turns out in my case, I had claimed the American Opportunity Credit for 4 years already (didn't realize there was a limit), so I needed to use the Lifetime Learning Credit instead, which is calculated differently. The agent walked me through exactly what to change in FreeTaxUSA. Saved me way more than the service cost.

One thing to double check is if you're eligible for the American Opportunity Credit (AOC) vs the Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC). The AOC is generally better but can only be claimed for 4 years, while the LLC can be claimed for unlimited years. AOC gives you up to $2,500 per eligible student (100% of first $2,000 in expenses, 25% of next $2,000), while LLC only gives 20% of up to $10,000 in expenses (max $2,000). Also, make sure you're considering books and required course materials - those can count as qualified expenses even if not paid directly to the school! Those wouldn't show up on your 1098-T but you can still claim them if you have receipts.

Have you checked if your qualified education expenses already got factored into your tax calculation? Sometimes it's not showing up as a separate item but is still reducing your overall tax liability. Also, double check box 7 on your 1098-T. If box 7 is checked, it means the amounts in Box 1 include amounts billed for the first three months of 2025 (next year's academic term). Those amounts wouldn't count for this year's taxes.