Western Governors University posts your Form 1098-T, the Tuition Statement, to the student portal by January 31 each year. The WGU 1098-T reports what you paid in qualified tuition and how much scholarship or grant money the school applied to your account during the prior calendar year, and you use those two numbers to claim a federal education tax credit worth up to $2,500.
Where to Find Your 1098-T on the WGU Portal
Log into your WGU student portal and open the Student Success tab. Select Financial Aid from the left-hand menu. The 1098-T link sits on the right side of the page, and the form downloads as a PDF you can print or save.
WGU delivers the form electronically because federal rules let schools skip the paper copy once a student has given affirmative consent, which WGU typically bundles into its electronic-communications agreement at enrollment. If you never gave that consent, the school has to mail you a paper copy instead.
Forms are available by January 31. If yours has not appeared by early February, check your student account to confirm your Social Security Number or ITIN is on file, then contact WGU’s financial services team if the form is still missing.
Why You Might Not Get One
WGU is required to issue a 1098-T to any student who paid qualified tuition and related expenses during the prior year, but two situations commonly produce no form:
- Your tuition was entirely covered by tax-free scholarships, grants, or employer assistance, so no out-of-pocket qualified payments were made.
- You are an international student without an SSN or ITIN on your student record.
A valid taxpayer identification number has to be on file for WGU to generate the form. If yours is not, the IRS can also assess a $50 penalty for failing to furnish it. Getting an SSN or ITIN into your record early in your enrollment avoids both the penalty and a scramble at tax time.
Reading Box 1 and Box 5
Most of the form is reference data. Two boxes drive your tax return.
Box 1 shows the total payments WGU received during the calendar year for qualified tuition and required fees. This is what was actually paid, not what was billed. Optional fees, room and board, and living expenses are not included.
Box 5 shows the total scholarships and grants WGU administered and applied to your account during the year. Subtract Box 5 from Box 1 to see your net qualified expenses. That difference is what feeds into your education credit calculation.
Box 8 is worth a glance. It is checked if WGU considered you at least a half-time student during any academic period in the year, and half-time enrollment is a requirement for the American Opportunity Tax Credit.
Which Education Credit to Claim
The 1098-T supports one of two federal credits. You cannot claim both for the same student in the same year. Both are calculated on IRS Form 8863 and filed with your return. The 1098-T itself does not get submitted; you just pull numbers from it.
American Opportunity Tax Credit
The AOTC is worth up to $2,500 per eligible student per year, and 40 percent of it (up to $1,000) is refundable, so you can get money back even if you owe no tax. It only covers the first four years of postsecondary education, though. If you already hold a bachelor’s degree and are working on a graduate program at WGU, the AOTC is off the table.
You need to be enrolled at least half-time for at least one academic period during the year. Income limits also apply: full credit at modified AGI of $80,000 or less ($160,000 married filing jointly), phasing out between $80,000 and $90,000 ($160,000 and $180,000 jointly), and gone above that.
Lifetime Learning Credit
The LLC is worth up to $2,000 per return, calculated as 20 percent of the first $10,000 in qualified expenses. There is no limit on how many years you can claim it, and it covers graduate, professional, and non-degree courses taken to improve job skills. For WGU students in a master’s program or a second bachelor’s, this is usually the applicable credit.
Phase-out ranges match the AOTC: $80,000 to $90,000 single, $160,000 to $180,000 joint. The LLC is not refundable, so it can zero out your tax bill but will not generate a refund on its own.
When Your Scholarships Become Taxable
If Box 5 is larger than Box 1, the excess scholarship or grant money may be taxable. Scholarship funds used for tuition and required fees are tax-free. Amounts applied toward room, board, travel, or other living expenses are not.
Report the taxable portion on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8r. WGU does not withhold taxes on scholarship funds and does not issue a W-2 or 1099 for these amounts, so the reporting is entirely on you. Depending on how much is taxable, you may also need to make estimated quarterly payments to avoid an underpayment penalty.
Fixing an Error Before You File
Compare Box 1 and Box 5 against your WGU billing statements and financial aid award letters. The IRS itself notes that the 1098-T may not capture every qualified expense you paid, and you are allowed to claim qualifying expenses not shown on the form as long as you can document them.
If the form itself is wrong, contact WGU’s financial services team and ask for a corrected 1098-T before you file. Filing with wrong numbers and then having a corrected form reach the IRS later is a reliable way to receive a notice asking you to explain the discrepancy.