Prepare accurate tuition statements from institution records. This guide is for bursar offices, registrars, financial-aid teams and authorized reporting providers responsible for Form 1098-T. It uses the 2026 IRS reporting instructions and connects each preparation stage to a more detailed operational guide.
Identify the institution and reportable student population
The tuition statement is Form 1098-T. There is no IRS tuition form called 1099-T. This site uses its domain to help educational institutions find the correct reporting workflow. Begin with the 2026 instructions for Forms 1098-E and 1098-T, the reporting entity and the campus or third-party systems holding its records.
Eligible educational institutions generally report enrolled students with reportable transactions, subject to the stated exceptions. Review noncredit courses, nonresident alien students, fully waived or scholarship-covered expenses and qualifying formal billing arrangements individually. A campus label or absent payment balance does not prove an exception applies. Prior-year adjustments may also require reporting for a student who is no longer enrolled.
A person collecting qualifying payments on the institution's behalf generally files if it has the needed information; otherwise the institution remains responsible under the instructions. Record the actual arrangement and information ownership. Use the institution reporting-scope guide to build an inclusion and exception register.
Assign source owners before the year-end extract
Combine the student account ledger, payment allocations, financial-aid records and registrar facts through a stable student reference. Collect the student's name, TIN and address through an authorized process. Keep the institution's legal identity, EIN and contact department separate from campus display names and payment-processor identifiers.
For required TIN requests, preserve the request wording, date and delivery evidence. The form's TIN checkbox is a certification subject to specific conditions, not a general reminder that staff tried to contact students. Validate those conditions before checking it. The year-end source checklist includes the handoffs needed between the bursar, registrar and financial-aid teams.
Map received payments and adjustments to the correct boxes
For 2026 reporting, box 1 includes payments received from all sources for qualified tuition and related expenses, reduced by refunds of those same-year payments. Keep this calendar-year receipt measure distinct from tuition billed and from an academic term's total charges. Room, board, insurance and other excluded personal expenses do not become qualifying tuition because they appear on the same student account.
| Field | Source | Practical check |
|---|---|---|
| Box 1 | Qualified payment allocations and same-year refunds | Use received payments rather than billed charges |
| Box 4 | Refunds of previously reported payments | Preserve the prior-year reference |
| Box 5 | Scholarships and grants administered or processed | Do not automatically subtract this total from box 1 |
| Box 6 | Reductions to prior-year reported scholarships or grants | Keep them distinct from current awards |
| Boxes 7, 8 and 9 | Academic period and registrar records | Apply each indicator's stated conditions |
Box 7 addresses included payments for an academic period beginning in the first three months of the following year. Use actual period dates. Box 8 and box 9 require enrollment facts; neither should be inferred from a payment amount or program nickname.
Worked example: reconcile payments without netting grants
Fictional 2026 example: an institution's reviewed student account includes $9,000 of payments allocated to qualified tuition and related expenses and a $1,000 refund of those same-year payments. Its separate financial-aid review supports $3,000 of administered scholarships in box 5. Assume the payment total already includes all applicable funding sources and excludes nonqualifying charges.
The proposed box 1 amount is $9,000 minus $1,000, or $8,000. Box 5 remains $3,000. Staff do not change box 1 to $5,000 simply by subtracting the scholarship total again. This is an institution reporting example, not a calculation of a student's education credit. Use the student-ledger reconciliation guide to trace the source rows and adjustment years.
Coordinate campuses, filing and statement furnishing
Determine whether multiple campuses belong to one reporting entity or to separate institutions. Reconcile duplicate student identities, cross-campus transfers and financial-aid allocations before release. A separate campus account does not automatically justify duplicate reporting of the same receipt. The multiple-campus guide provides a reporting-entity and ownership map.
Use the applicable general instructions to verify dates, aggregate electronic-filing requirements and available extensions. IRS filing and student furnishing are separate obligations. Record the approved file version, actual IRS result, furnished statement version and delivery evidence. Electronic furnishing requires the applicable consent and disclosures; placing a PDF in a portal alone does not establish that every condition was met.
Manage correction requests through the institution
Ask staff to identify the disputed box, tax year, student account and statement version. Retrieve the underlying ledger or registrar record and preserve the original. Correct supported reporting errors through the appropriate filing-channel process and furnish corrected statements as required. A parent paying tuition does not automatically replace the student identity on Form 1098-T.
Provide a factual explanation of the institution's reporting decision and track pending release or delivery work. The institution correction-intake guide includes a box-specific review worksheet. Keep personal credit eligibility outside the reporting team's correction approval criteria.
Filer FAQ
Should the institution prepare Form 1099-T?
No. The IRS tuition statement is Form 1098-T. Use that exact form name in reporting files, statements, instructions and institution communications.
Must every enrolled student receive a form?
Review the reporting exceptions and any applicable prior-year adjustment requirements. Document why each excluded population meets the specific conditions.
Does box 1 equal tuition billed?
No. The current instructions use qualifying payments received during the calendar year, with the specified refund treatment. A billed-charge total is a different measure.
Should scholarships always reduce box 1?
Do not subtract box 5 mechanically. Reconcile qualified payments and administered scholarship reporting separately under the instructions.
Can one campus release resolve all institution reporting?
Only if it covers the approved reporting entity and complete population. Reconcile campus ownership and separate IRS filing from student furnishing.
Official sources
- IRS 2026 instructions for Forms 1098-E and 1098-T: Institution responsibility, reporting exceptions, student facts and box instructions.
- IRS Notice 2006-72: Reporting exception and scholarship clarifications; historical billed-amount examples do not restore an obsolete current reporting method.
- IRS Publication 1099: 2026 general filing and furnishing requirements.
Prepare your organization's next filing
Review BoomTax's filing options for your forms, reporting year, and workflow. Keep federal submission, applicable state reporting, and recipient furnishing on your release checklist.
