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My daughter needs to prove her education expenses for the education credits she received on her 2014 taxes. This was her first year filing taxes and she did use a tax lady. The tax lady has told us we need to show receipts for her registration etc. as well as books, supplies etc. to confirm she was in college and the money spent on that.

The problem we are having is that her tax papers start off with an adjusted qualified education expenses number that does not add up to the receipts my daughter had/has so we are not sure if there is an adjustment that is made for this or if these numbers are supposed to match precisely, and if so, we need to figure out why they don't.

I am hoping we just need to show and prove that she was in college and what her expenses were to keep the education credit and not that the education credit amount will change if her receipts are $200 off.

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  • The education credit amount may indeed change if your receipts are $200 off, but it will likely not change by very much.
    – BrenBarn
    Commented Feb 17, 2017 at 3:37

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In the united states qualified institutions of higher education should give the student a 1098-t. This form breaks down all money received/billed and for tuition and scholarships. It would not include items such as books and room and board. The 1098 would constitute proof of attendance and proof of expenses.

If a 529 plan was used to pay for part or all of the tuition it should also be sent to you or the student depending on where the funds were sent.

If the student can't find the 1098-t it is likely that the college had an electronic copy sent to the students official email, or it can be downloaded from the student's account where tuition bills care paid.

Note: a confusing part of the 1098-T is that many universities include the spring semester numbers in the form for the previous year.

For Example:

Semester        1098-T Form
Fall 2014       2014
Spring 2015     2014
Summer 2015     2015
Fall 2015       2015
Spring 2016     2015

The 1098-T will tell you if they have done that.

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