When filing taxes, don't report your student loans as income. Student loans aren't taxable because you'll eventually repay them. Free money used for school is treated differently. You don't pay taxes on scholarship or fellowship money used toward tuition, fees and equipment or books required for coursework.
Even if you didn't receive a 1098-E from your servicer, you can download your 1098-E from your loan servicer's website. If you are unsure who your loan servicer is, log in to StudentAid.gov or call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243; TTY 1-800-730-8913).
Income is classified by the IRS as money you earn, whether through work or investments. A personal loan must be repaid and cannot be classified as income unless your debt is forgiven. If you do not intend to seek debt cancellation for your personal loan, you do not have to worry about reporting it on your income taxes.
Each lender will issue its own form, so you'll receive a 1098-E from your servicer if you have federal loans. If you have private loans, you'll receive a separate 1098-E.
Most forms of financial aid are not taxable. For example, students typically do not pay taxes on student loans, grants, or scholarships. There are exceptions, however. Students must pay taxes on work-related income distributed as financial aid.
Generally, student loans are not considered income, so they are not taxed. The exception is when some or all of your student loan balance is forgiven. In some cases, the IRS may count the canceled debt as taxable income. Educational grants and scholarships, on the other hand, may or may not count as income.
The IRS considers canceled debt, including most forms of student loan debt forgiveness or student loan discharge, to be taxable income. However, borrowers working toward loan forgiveness have been exempt from taxes thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Student loan interest is interest you paid during the year on a qualified student loan. It includes both required and voluntarily prepaid interest payments. You may deduct the lesser of $2,500 or the amount of interest you actually paid during the year.
The student loan interest deduction is a federal income tax deduction that allows borrowers to subtract up to $2,500 of the interest paid on qualified student loans from their taxable income.
At the end of each year, your servicer will send you Form 1098-E by mail or electronically. This form details how much interest you have paid on your student loan during the year. You can deduct up to $2,500 in annual interest on your tax return, subject to income limitations and other restrictions.
When you take out a loan, you don't have to pay income taxes on the proceeds. The IRS does not consider borrowed money to be income. If the creditor cancels the loan, with some exceptions the amount of the forgiveness usually does become income.
Is a Loan Payment an Expense? A loan payment often consists of an interest payment and a payment to reduce the loan's principal balance. The interest portion is recorded as an expense, while the principal portion is a reduction of a liability such as Loan Payable or Notes Payable.
Failure to file form 1098 electronically
If you are required and you do not file electronically, you may be subject to a penalty of up to $100 per 1098 form.
These credits may reduce your tax liability and increase your refund, depending on your eligibility and the amount of qualified expenses you paid. The American Opportunity Credit enables qualified taxpayers to claim a credit for the first four years of post-secondary education up to $2,500 per student.
The Lifetime Learning Credit works for undergraduate or graduate tuition and doesn't require a course load or enrollment in a degree program. This is a credit of up to $2,000. While it's not refundable, it's still a great way to reduce the tax you owe.
Tax Refunds Temporarily Paused
While the payment pause is ending at the end of August 2023, the Department of Education has stated that tax refund offsets will continue to be paused until at least six months after the payment pause ends.
If you made federal student loan payments in 2023, you may be eligible to deduct a portion of the interest paid on your 2023 federal tax return.
For tax year 2023, phase-out for single filers begins when modified adjusted gross income is above $75,000 and for joint filers over $155,000. It ends for taxpayers when modified adjusted gross income breaches $90,000 for single filers and $185,000 for joint filers.
Whether your student loan interest is tax-deductible depends on whether you meet a few IRS requirements: You paid interest on a qualified student loan in the tax year for which you're filing. You were legally obligated to pay the interest. Your filing status is not married filing separately.
The IRS doesn't consider a loan taxable income. But, if your lender forgives or cancels more than $600 of your loan, the loan amount you received could be subject to income tax. Usually, cancellation of debt (COD) happens if a borrower is in financial trouble and negotiates for debt relief.
Which states will tax student debt forgiveness? Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Wisconsin will tax the amount of your federal student loan forgiveness.
If you forget to report the income documented on a 1099 form, the IRS will catch this error. When the IRS thinks that you owe additional tax on your unreported 1099 income, it'll usually notify you and retroactively charge you penalties and interest beginning on the first day they think that you owed additional tax.
When you're ready to file your federal income tax return, make sure you have your Form 1098-T on hand — if you received one. It can help you calculate two potentially valuable education credits — the American opportunity tax credit and the lifetime learning credit.
You are required to report reimbursements of overpaid interest aggregating $600 or more to a payer of record on Form 1098. You are not required to report reimbursements of overpaid interest aggregating less than $600 unless you are otherwise required to file Form 1098.
You can take a tax deduction for the interest paid on student loans that you took out for yourself, your spouse, or your dependent. This benefit applies to all loans (not just federal student loans) used to pay for higher education expenses. The maximum deduction is $2,500 a year.