»1098-T: Tax Credits

To assist you in supplementing your own records, we include a summary of all transactions posted to the student account during the calendar year. We cannot adjust your 1098-T qualified charges to include transactions specifically excluded by the Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning credit programs such as room and board. We also cannot adjust your qualified charges to include transactions that took place in other calendar years. You must use your own records of payments in addition to the information about qualified charges we provide to determine your eligibility for a tax credit in any given calendar year.

In general, qualified tuition and related expenses are tuition and fees required for enrollment or attendance at an eligible educational institution. Student-activity fees and fees for course-related books, supplies, and equipment are included in qualified tuition and related expenses only if the fees must be paid to the institution as a condition of enrollment or attendance.

Qualified tuition and related expenses do not include:

• the cost of insurance,
• medical expenses (including student health fees),
• room and board,

Qualified tuition and related expenses generally do not include:

• expenses that relate to any course of instruction or other education that involves sports, games, or hobbies, or
• any noncredit course.

However, if the course of instruction or other education is part of the student's degree program or, in the case of the lifetime learning credit, is taken by the student to acquire or improve job skills, these expenses can qualify.  If you have any questions about this, please contact ECSI at 866-428-1098, or go to ECSI's website:  www.ecsi.net/1098t

IRS regulations require that all institutions assessing qualified charges provide a 1098-T to each student with qualified charges in the year just ended. Chapman University must also file an information return with the IRS for each of these students. We have contracted with a vendor, ECSI,  to provide these reporting services for us.

On the 1098-T, we report the name, SSN and address of the student, and indicate whether the student was a graduate student or at least half-time during the calendar year.

Institutions are required to report either the payments received for qualified charges or the amounts billed for qualified charges. Chapman University does not identify payments on your student account with specific charges, therefore, Chapman University reports amounts billed. If you qualify for an educational credit, you should use your personal records and student account statements to determine the amounts that you actually paid toward the charges reported on the 1098-T.

Transactions for example, for Spring 2010 posted to your student account before January 1, 2010 were included in your 2009 1098-T. These may qualify for a credit in 2010 if you paid them in 2010.

We are required to report all qualified transactions in the actual calendar year during which they were posted to your account, regardless of when you pay them.