It’s tax time, which means it’s time to claim education tax credits you may be eligible for. Unfortunately, a lot of tax software programs don’t provide good instructions for doing so, so it’s a good idea to pull up the instructions for Form 8863 and review them before filing. The American Opportunity Tax Credit is the more valuable of the two credits,…
What segment of education borrowers is growing the fastest? Parent PLUS loan borrowers. And it’s not just the number of borrowers that’s increasing; outstanding debt balances for Parent PLUS loans are growing faster than any other segment of the federal student loan portfolio. From 2014 to 2023, the number people with outstanding Parent PLUS loans grew by almost 20% to…
Last week, the Department of Education announced further delays in FAFSA processing: colleges will not receive applicants’ FAFSA submission data until March. This means students are unlikely to receive financial aid offers until April. Traditionally, colleges have required students to accept admission by May 1, which would mean a very short timeline for decision-making. A handful of colleges have already…
Form 1098-T is a tuition statement that students receive from their college. It serves two primary purposes: Form 1098-T isn’t filed with your taxes; instead, you use the information to file and then keep it for your records. One important point about form 1098-T: it only shows tuition net of scholarships. Both education tax credits and 529 withdrawals have additional qualified expenses…
529 college savings accounts have loads of well-publicized benefits: tax-free growth and distributions for qualified expenses, state tax benefits for contributions, gifting pages, and much more. But the unsung benefit of 529s is their preferential treatment in financial aid formulas. How is that? First, the new simplified FAFSA only has you report the student’s 529 balance as an asset, not…