Here is the question:
Did you receive any of the following:
Student grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS as part of your (and your spouse’s) adjusted gross income. Includes AmeriCorps benefits (awards, living allowances, and interest accrual payments), as well as grant or scholarship portions of fellowships and assistantships.
I don’t understand this. I received grants and loans for college last year. Is that what it means?
This is asking if you received any grant money that was taxable. According to the IRS, grant money is only taxable if you if you DIDN’T spend it on tuition, fees, books, supplies or equipment. So for instance grant money spent on room, board or travel, or just saved in an account would be taxable.
It doesn’t ask about loan money, but if you had to have a loan to supplement your scholarships then it sounds like you didn’t have extra grant money after tuition etc. So I think your answer to the question would probably be “No.”
Loco has this one dead on. Good response. Very few student will actually need to report taxable scholarships or grants. Especially if you had to take out loans to help pay your bill.
Find out how much you paid in tuition and fees last year. This is usually reported on your 1098-T form issued by the school. It also shows the amount of your grants received. If your grants received does not exceed the tuition you paid, you will not have taxable scholarship money. Only the amount that exceeds the tuition is actually taxable