Who must file Form 1098-T
File Form 1098-T if you are an eligible educational institution, a college, university, vocational school or other postsecondary institution eligible for federal student aid, including one that is a governmental unit or its instrumentality, for each student enrolled for whom a reportable transaction (payments received for qualified tuition and related expenses, or a reimbursement or refund) is made during the calendar year. An insurer that makes refunds or reimbursements of qualified expenses under an insurance arrangement also files, reporting in box 10. If another person (a third-party servicer) has the information, it may file for you.
Amounts are reported on the payments-received method: box 1 is what the institution received during the year for qualified tuition and related expenses, net of reimbursements, whatever academic period it covers.
Threshold: All amounts, every student for whom a reportable transaction is made during the year; exceptions for noncredit courses, nonresident aliens (unless requested), full scholarship students and formal billing arrangements.
What is reported, box by box
| Box | What it reports | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Payments received for qualified tuition and related expenses | Received during the calendar year, for any academic period. |
| 2 and 3 | Reserved | |
| 4 | Adjustments made for a prior year | Reductions in payments reported in a prior year. |
| 5 | Scholarships or grants | Administered and processed by the institution. |
| 6 | Adjustments to scholarships or grants for a prior year | |
| 7 | Checkbox: box 1 includes amounts for an academic period beginning January to March of the next year | |
| 8 | Checkbox: at least half-time student | |
| 9 | Checkbox: graduate student | |
| 10 | Insurance contract reimbursements or refunds | Insurers only. |
Box titles follow the current revision of the form. The IRS reads the payer and recipient name, TIN, address, account number and the money boxes; the state boxes are for the state copy only.
Payments that are not reported on Form 1098-T
- Courses for which no academic credit is offered, even if the student is otherwise enrolled.
- Nonresident alien students, unless the student requests the form.
- Students whose qualified expenses are entirely waived or paid by scholarships, and students whose expenses are covered by a formal billing arrangement with the student's employer or a governmental entity.
Due dates and extensions
| Copy | Due | For 2026 returns |
|---|---|---|
| To the IRS, paper | February 28 | Monday, March 1, 2027 (February 28 is a Sunday) |
| To the IRS, electronic | March 31 | Wednesday, March 31, 2027 |
| To the recipient | January 31 | Monday, February 1, 2027 (January 31 is a Sunday) |
An automatic 30-day extension is available on Form 8809, filed by the due date on paper or through IRIS; a second 30 days requires a hardship showing. Recipient statements can be extended 30 days on Form 15397, online or by fax only. 10 or more information returns of any type in aggregate must be e-filed (T.D. 9972); IRIS is the only IRS intake system from filing season 2027, FIRE having been retired. A payer who e-files the originals must e-file the corrections.
For 2026 forms filed in 2027: January 31 falls on a Sunday, so that deadline moves to Monday, February 1, 2027; February 28 also falls on a Sunday, so the paper deadline moves to Monday, March 1, 2027. March 31 (electronic) and March 15 are weekdays. February 28 does not become February 29 in a leap year. The compliance calendar has every date with the weekend shifts applied.
Withholding and TIN matching
Tuition payments flow to the institution, so backup withholding is not in play and the form is outside the IRS TIN Matching program. The TIN rules are specific to 1098-T: the institution solicits the student's TIN in writing (Form W-9S or a substitute; not by telephone), and under the regulations an institution that certifies under penalty of perjury that it complied with the solicitation rules is not penalized for a missing or incorrect student TIN. The student's TIN checkbox on the form records that certification. Electronic W-9S systems must meet the requirements in Pub 1099 part J.
Name and TIN errors on this form
Every information return is matched by the IRS on the first four characters of the payee's name (the name control) against the TIN. A mismatch produces a CP2100 line the following autumn and, unless the solicitation record is in order, a 972CG penalty the year after: $340 per return for 2026 forms filed in 2027 that are late or wrong, $690 for intentional disregard, with annual maximums of $4,191,500 ($1,397,000 for small filers) under Rev. Proc. 2025-32. The errors that recur on Form 1098-T:
- Student, not parent. The form goes to the student under the student's SSN even when a parent pays and will claim the credit.
- Application names. Admissions systems capture preferred names; the 1098-T needs the legal name the SSA holds. Reconcile at enrollment, not at year end.
- ITINs and nonresident aliens. A nonresident alien is excepted unless they ask; a resident alien with an ITIN is reported under the ITIN.
- Certification checkbox. Checking it without an actual solicitation record is the wrong kind of exposure; keep the W-9S request and any response with the student file.
The name control calculator shows what the IRS will derive from a name line, and the CP2100 guide covers what to do when the notice arrives.
Recipient statements and substitutes
The recipient statement for Form 1098-T need not be a copy of the official form: a substitute may be combined with other account statements or reports, provided every required item is numbered and titled as on the official form, the tax year, form number and form name appear together, the recipient instructions are included, and, for the forms Pub 1099 lists, a telephone number with direct access to someone who can answer questions is shown. Publication 1179 (Rev. Proc. 2026-18) has the specifications; logos, slogans and advertising are not permitted on the statement itself. Statements may be furnished electronically only to a recipient who has affirmatively consented in a way that shows they can access the format, after the disclosures in Pub 1099 part M, and must stay posted through October 15. Copy B may show a truncated TIN (xxx-xx-1234); the IRS copy never may.
Corrections and state copies
A wrong amount, code or checkbox is a Type 1 correction: one corrected return with the CORRECTED box checked. A wrong or missing payee TIN, a wrong payee name, or the wrong form type is a Type 2 correction: a zeroed-out copy of the original plus a new original, in that order. Publication 1099 also says you are not required to file a correction for a missing or incorrect TIN if you meet the reasonable-cause standard, only to use the right TIN on the next return, although the IRS encourages the correction. Details and the paper error charts are on the 1099 corrections page.
Form 1098-T is not in the Combined Federal/State Filing program, so any state that requires it must receive it directly. Requirements by state are on the state pages.
Questions people ask about Form 1098-T
A student refused to give us an SSN.
Solicit it in writing, keep the request, file with the TIN blank and the certification box checked; the penalty does not apply when you have complied with the solicitation rules.
Do we report room and board?
No; only qualified tuition and related expenses (tuition, fees, and course materials required for enrollment) are in box 1.
Is 1098-T in the Combined Federal/State program?
No.
Other federal forms
1042-S · 1097-BTC · 1098 · 1098-C · 1098-E · 1098-F · 1098-Q · 1098-VLI · 1099-A · 1099-B · 1099-C · 1099-CAP · 1099-DIV · 1099-G · 1099-INT · 1099-K · 1099-LS · 1099-LTC · 1099-MISC · 1099-NEC · 1099-OID · 1099-PATR · 1099-Q · 1099-QA · 1099-R · 1099-S · 1099-SA · 1099-SB · 3921 · 3922 · 5498 · 5498-ESA · 5498-SA · W-2G · 1099-DA · Comparison table
Sources: IRS Publication 1099 (2026), General Instructions for Certain Information Returns, which replaced the separate General Instructions starting with tax year 2026; Instructions for Forms 1098-E and 1098-T (2026); Pub 1099 (2026) parts J and O; Publication 1586 Part V; IRC 6050S; Regulations 1.6050S-1. Threshold amounts are indexed for inflation from calendar year 2027; check IRS.gov/InflationAdjustment for the current year.