The IRS 1098-T provides tax information necessary to determine eligibility for the American Opportunity Tax Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit. These are two tax credits available to help offset the costs of higher education by reducing the amount of your income tax. For more information, see IRS Publication 970. and seek counsel from a qualified tax professional. Tarleton State University is prohibited from giving tax advice and cannot determine if a student qualifies for a tax credit.
The 1098-T reports qualified tuition and related expenses paid on or after January 1 and on or before December 31 of the tax year. Not all payments received are for qualified tuition and related expenses. For example, parking permit fees may appear on the bill statement, but are not a Qualified Tuition and Related Expense. You will therefore see a difference in the payments received for Qualified Tuition and Related Expenses (1098-T Box 1) and the total amount paid. For purposes of the Form 1098-T provided by Tarleton State University, listed below is a partial list of qualified and unqualified expenses.
Qualified Tuition and Related Expenses
- Designated Tuition
- Tuition
- Differential Tuition
- Lab Fee
- University Services Fee
Unqualified Expenses
- Room and Board Fee
- Parking Fee
- Health Service Fee
- Intercollegiate Athletics Fee
- Student Center Fee
- Recreation Sports Fee
- Late Registration Fee
- Payment Plan Fee
Tarleton State University has partnered with Heartland ECSI, offering students the opportunity to receive their 1098-T Tuition Statement electronically. To receive a 1098-T form electronically, the student must give their consent by following the link provided below and following the step by step instructions. 1098-T’s will be provided by the end of January 2024. If electronic consent is not received by January 1, 2024 the 1098-T will be mailed to the current address on file. Not all students will be eligible to receive a 1098-T for the 2023 tax year. Email notifications will be sent when 1098-T forms are available.
1098 – T Electronic Consent
The benefits to receiving electronic notification are:
- Online delivery provides access to the form 1098-T earlier than the traditional mailing process.
- Online delivery eliminates the chance that the 1098-T will get lost, misdirected or delayed during delivery, or misplaced once the student receives it.
- Signing up for online delivery is easy and secure.
- Students can receive their 1098-T form while traveling or away from their home address.
To give consent to receive your 1098-T form electronically, click on the link below and follow the simple instructions to sign up!
- Visit https://heartland.ecsi.net/index.main.html#/access/eConsent
- Follow the step-by-step instructions on the web form.
- Check the box and click submit.
Online 1098 – T Access
- Go to www.heartland.ecsi.net
- Scroll down and click the option “Accessing Your 1098 Tax Document”
- On the next page click “Want to look up your 1098-T or 1098-E tax form?”
- On the next page click “I need my 1098-T Tuition tax statement”
- On the next page enter “Tarleton State University” as your school name and click “Submit”
- On the next page fill in the required information (make sure you are using the zip code that Tarleton has on file as your Permanent address), click “I am not a robot”, then click “Continue”.
- The next page has your 1098-T Statement. On the right side of the screen click “View Details” to drop down your 1098-T Statement. You can print it or save it to your computer from here.
Form W-9S, Request for Student’s Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification, is used by eligible educational institutions to request the taxpayer identification number of students for whom the institution must report Form 1098-T Tuition Statement information to the Internal Revenue Service.
All students who have a missing or invalid social security number (SSN) in their student record, who were enrolled in credit-based courses and made payments during the tax year that are reportable on a Form 1098-T Tuition Statement will receive a W-9S, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification.
The SSN and ITIN are information provided in the Form 1098-T file to the IRS. Failure to provide Tarleton State University with your SSN or ITIN could result in being subject to an IRS fine and the IRS will not be able to use the Form 1098-T filed by Tarleton State University to confirm your eligibility for certain education tax benefits without your SSN or ITIN.
Download the Form W-9S then return the completed form to the Office of Business Services by one of the following methods:
Mail the completed form to:
Office of Business Services
PO Box T-0120
Stephenville, TX 76402
Deliver the completed form to:
Business Services
Administration Building, Room 103
The Form 1098-T reports information on what you paid for qualified tuition and related expenses (QTRE) at a college or university in a single tax year. All eligible educational institutions are required by the Internal Revenue Service to provide you with this information.
The Form 1098-T is informational only and should not be considered as tax opinion or advice. It serves to alert you that you may be eligible for federal income tax education credits. Receipt of Form 1098-T does not indicate eligibility for the tax credit.
The IRS allows various exclusions from issuing a Form 1098-T, such as:
· Student’s scholarship or grants amount (Box 5) is greater than their payments for Qualified Tuition and Related Expenses (QTRE) (Box 1)
· Student’s QTRE are covered by a formal billing arrangement directly between the University and the student’s employer or government entity.
· A student took courses for which no academic credit is offered, even if the student is otherwise enrolled in a degree program.
· The student is not a resident of the United States. Forms can be provided upon student’s request.
If you paid qualified tuition and related expenses (QTRE) during the previous calendar year, a Form 1098-T will be available by January 31st. Students will receive an email when the forms are available. For those students who chose paper delivery, the Form 1098-T will be mailed by January 31st. If you’ve elected online delivery, a paper form will not be mailed.
There are several possibilities:
· You may not have received a Form1098-T if you have moved and not changed your address.
· You may not have had any payments to current qualified tuition and related expenses (QTRE) items or any payments on your account in 2023.
· You may have received more scholarships and/or grants than the amount of qualified tuition and fees paid.
· You did not register for any courses during the year.
The amount in box 1 represents payments for qualified tuition and related expenses (QTRE) during the calendar year, not the total amount paid. Not all payments received are for QTRE. For example, parking permit fees may appear on the bill statement, but are not a QTRE. You will therefore see a difference in the payments received for QTRE (Form 1098-T Box 1) and the total amount paid.
Secondly, Form 1098-T reports amounts that the student paid in a certain year, and the amount is not based on when the classes were attended or billed to the student account. For example, tuition for the Spring semester is typically billed in the prior year so a student may have paid tuition for the Spring semester in November or December even though classes don’t start until January. Your Texan Bill Pay will show the dates payments were posted to your account and is a valuable resource for determining the semesters that are included on your Form 1098-T.
Yes, if you receive a Form 1098-T, any financial aid received during the tax year will be displayed in Box 5. Note that if your tuition and fees were entirely covered by financial aid, you will not receive a Form 1098-T. Box 5 does not include student loans, work-study, or scholarships and grants that were not administered by the University.
Some May graduates will not be issued a Form 1098-T because there is a possibility that payments for qualified tuition and related expenses (QTRE) for spring were made on or before December 31 of the prior calendar year. If a student paid for the spring semester and any other outstanding QTRE charges in the prior calendar year, then the student would not receive a Form 1098-T in the year of graduation.
Payments made for Spring 2023 charges made prior to January 1, 2023 will not be included in the 2023 Form 1098-T.
No, per IRS regulations, you do not qualify to receive a 2023 Form 1098-T because you were not enrolled in an academic period beginning in calendar year 2023.
Yes, it will appear on your 2023 Form 1098-T. Box 7 will also be checked to indicate that the “payments received” in Box 1 include payments for terms that start in the first three months of the upcoming year.
Yes, per IRS regulations, you will receive a Form 1098-T for only the amount of qualified tuition and related expenses (QTRE) that have not been refunded.
Tarleton State University must file a Form 1098-T for you even if you did not provide your Social Security Number (SSN) with Tarleton State University. If you do not have a Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) listed on your account you can complete a Form W-9S and submit it to the Business Office. If the SSN or ITIN we have on file is incorrect you will need to complete a Permanent Record Update Form and provide the required documentation to the Registrar’s Office in order to have the existing information updated.
Federal law requires that you provide your correct Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) so that the University can include it in the information which will be filed with the IRS. You may be subject to an IRS fine for failure to provide the requested information and the IRS will not be able to use the Form 1098-T filed by the University to confirm your eligibility for certain education tax benefits without your SSN or ITIN. Therefore, you may be questioned by the IRS if you claim an education tax credit when a TIN was not included on the Form 1098-T.
An individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) is a tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS issues an ITIN to individuals who are required to have a U.S. taxpayer identification number but who do not have, and are not eligible to obtain, a social security number (SSN) from the Social Security Administration (SSA). ITINs are issued regardless of immigration status, because both resident and nonresident aliens may have a U.S. filing or reporting requirement under the Internal Revenue Code. ITINs do not serve any purpose other than federal tax reporting.
Section 6109 of the Internal Revenue Code requires taxpayers to give their correct social security number (SSN) or Individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) to entities who must file Form 1098-T Tuition Statement information returns. If the student has a taxpayer identification number (SSN or ITIN) and does not provide it when requested, the student may be subject to an IRS fine for failure to provide the requested information and the IRS will not be able to use the Form 1098-T filed by Tarleton State University to confirm your eligibility for certain education tax benefits without your SSN or ITIN. Please consult your tax advisor for more information. Tarleton State University will report a student’s Form 1098-T information to the IRS with or without a taxpayer identification number.
Tarleton State University is prohibited from giving tax advice, or guidance on tax determinations or calculations, and from disclosing any student information to anyone other than the individual student. Instructions for students are printed on the Form 1098-T in order to answer some of your questions. Other resources, such as IRS Publication 970 or seeking the advice from a qualified tax professional, are recommended if you have questions about your specific reporting.
To discuss how the amounts on Form 1098-T were calculated, contact the Business Services at 254-965-9107 Option #1. Business Services can give the student information on what the numbers consist of but they cannot tell a student how to use the information when filing their taxes.
Download the Form W-9S then return the completed form to the Office of Business Services by one of the following methods:
Mail the completed form to:
Office of Business Services
PO Box T-0120
Stephenville, TX 76402
Deliver the completed form to:
Business Services
Administration Building, Room 103
For questions, please visit http://www.ecsi.net/taxinfo.html for information regarding tax documents and to obtain contact information for Heartland ECSI. For Customer Service Contact ECSI 1-866-428-1098.
1098-T Prior to 2016
Log into General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) Taxpayer Relief Act (TRA) Service to retrieve your 1098-T.
Tarleton State University and ECSI cannot provide individual income tax advice. If you have any tax related questions, please contact a tax professional or the Internal Revenue Service at 1-800-829-1040.