Why Didn’t I Receive a 1098-T and What to Do

If you didn’t receive a 1098-T this year, the most likely reasons are that your school isn’t required to issue one to you, your tuition was fully covered by scholarships or grants, your payments landed in a different calendar year, or the form is already waiting in your student portal. A missing 1098-T doesn’t automatically cost you the American Opportunity Tax Credit or the Lifetime Learning Credit — you can still claim them if you can document what you paid.¹

Check Your Student Portal First

Before assuming the form was never created, log into your student account. Federal regulations let schools furnish the 1098-T electronically instead of by mail, as long as you consented to electronic delivery — and most schools now make that the default option during enrollment.² Students often click through that consent without remembering it. Look under a section labeled “Tax Documents,” “Tax Forms,” or “1098-T” inside your financial account. The PDF is usually posted by late January.

Schools must furnish the form by January 31 of the year after the tax year in question.² If February arrives with nothing in the portal and nothing in the mail, it’s time to figure out which of the reasons below applies to you.

Your School Isn’t Required to Issue One

Only “eligible educational institutions” have a reporting obligation. That means colleges, universities, and vocational schools that participate in the Department of Education’s Title IV student aid programs.³ Schools outside that system — some international programs, unaccredited trade schools, niche training academies — have no obligation to file or furnish the form.⁴ A quick test: if your school accepts FAFSA applications and has a Federal School Code, it almost certainly participates in Title IV.

You Fall Into an Excluded Category

Even at an eligible institution, the IRS excuses schools from issuing a 1098-T for four specific groups of students:⁴

Students taking only non-credit courses. Continuing education, professional development, and personal enrichment classes often carry no academic credit even when offered by a major university, and payments for those classes don’t have to be reported.
Nonresident aliens, unless the student specifically requests the form. International students who file as residents or claim treaty benefits should ask the registrar in writing.
Students whose qualified tuition was completely covered by scholarships or grants. If there’s no out-of-pocket amount and no billable balance, the school has nothing to report.
Students whose tuition is paid under a formal billing arrangement with an employer, the VA, or the Department of Defense, where the school doesn’t maintain a separate financial account for the student.

The non-credit exclusion catches more people than you’d expect, especially adult learners taking workshops or certificate courses at a school that also grants degrees.

The School Had Nothing to Report

Scholarship and grant coverage is the single most common financial reason a form doesn’t appear. If a Pell Grant, institutional scholarship, or tuition waiver covered every dollar of qualified tuition and fees, the school won’t issue a 1098-T.⁴ That’s separate from whether any of that aid is taxable to you.

Payment timing trips up a lot of students. Schools report tuition in the calendar year they receive the payment, not the semester it covers. Pay spring tuition in December and the payment shows up on the prior year’s 1098-T; the current year’s form may show nothing despite a full semester of classes. When that happens, the school checks Box 7 on the prior year’s form to flag that some of the reported amount relates to an academic period starting January through March of the following year.⁴

Room, board, health insurance, and transportation are not qualified tuition expenses.⁴ If those were your only charges paid directly to the school during the year, there’s nothing to put on the form. Books and course materials you bought elsewhere still count toward the AOTC — they just won’t appear on a 1098-T, because the school only reports amounts paid to it.⁵

The School Couldn’t Match You to a Taxpayer ID

If the school doesn’t have a valid Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number on file for you, it can’t generate the form. Schools collect this information through IRS Form W-9S, which students typically fill out during enrollment.⁶ Skip that step, or enter your number incorrectly, and the form can’t be issued until you correct it. Students who transferred or enrolled mid-year sometimes miss a W-9S at the new school without realizing it.

An outdated mailing address can also cause a paper form to bounce back, though this matters less now that most delivery is electronic.

How to Track Down the Form

If the portal has nothing, contact the bursar’s or registrar’s office. Ask them to confirm whether a 1098-T was generated for you and, if not, why. Common fixes at this stage are submitting a corrected W-9S, updating your address, or requesting a paper copy. These usually resolve in a few business days.

If the school confirms no 1098-T will be issued, ask for a certified account ledger or detailed billing statement itemizing every tuition charge and payment made during the calendar year. That document isn’t a replacement the IRS treats as equivalent to a 1098-T, but it gives you the raw numbers you need to calculate qualified expenses and back up a credit claim.

Can You Still Claim an Education Credit

Yes, in two situations. The IRS allows you to claim the AOTC or Lifetime Learning Credit without a 1098-T when the school wasn’t required to send one — meaning you fall into one of the excluded categories above — as long as you attended an eligible institution, otherwise qualify, and can prove you paid qualified expenses.¹

You can also claim the credit when the school was required to send the form but didn’t. In that case, the IRS wants you to take specific steps first: after January 31 but before you file, you or the student must request that the school furnish the 1098-T, and you must cooperate fully with the school’s efforts to gather the information it needs. If the school still doesn’t produce the form, you can file claiming the credit as long as you can document enrollment and expenses.¹

The AOTC is worth up to $2,500 per eligible student, and the Lifetime Learning Credit is worth up to $2,000 per return.⁷⁸ Either way, your records need to be solid — the IRS doesn’t accept estimates or approximations. Keep canceled checks, bank statements, receipts for tuition and books, enrollment transcripts, and scholarship award letters, and hold onto them for at least three years from the date you file.⁹

Who Actually Uses the Form on a Tax Return

The 1098-T is issued in the student’s name and SSN, but only the person who claims the student as a dependent can take the education credit.¹⁰ If you’re a parent claiming your college-age child, you need the 1098-T data to complete Form 8863 even though the form is in the student’s name. If you’re a student and no one can claim you as a dependent, you claim the credit yourself. Getting this wrong is a reliable way to trigger IRS correspondence.

What if the Form Arrives With Errors

Sometimes the problem is not a missing form but an incorrect one. Schools occasionally report the wrong tuition amount, omit a scholarship, or list payments in the wrong tax year. Contact the bursar’s office and request a corrected 1098-T; the school will issue a new one marked as corrected.

If you already filed based on an incorrect 1098-T and the corrected version changes your credit amount, you may need to file an amended return on Form 1040-X.¹¹ Filing the amendment promptly gets you additional money back if the credit goes up, and helps you avoid interest and penalties on any underpayment if it goes down.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8863
2
Code of Federal Regulations. 26 CFR 1.6050S-1
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 25A – American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Credits
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1098-E and 1098-T (2025)
5
Internal Revenue Service. Qualified Education Expenses
6
Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-9S, Request for Student’s or Borrower’s Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification
7
Internal Revenue Service. American Opportunity Tax Credit
8
Internal Revenue Service. Lifetime Learning Credit
9
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 970 Tax Benefits for Education
10
Internal Revenue Service. Education Credits: Questions and Answers
11
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 308, Amended Returns