A missing 1098-T is usually waiting in the student's school portal, or the bursar's office can send it. The education credits generally require that the student received a 1098-T, but the IRS allows exceptions when the school was not required to issue one, or when the student asked for it and the school did not provide it.
Where can a student download a missing 1098-T?
A student downloads a missing 1098-T from the school's online student account, where many schools post it instead of mailing paper. If the form is not there, the bursar's or student accounts office can say whether one was issued and where it was sent. Some schools use an outside service to produce the form, and the school's site names it.
The Instructions for Forms 1098-E and 1098-T (2026) (reviewed 30 April 2026) allow a school to furnish the statement electronically, through a "Consent To Do Business Electronically" that meets the requirements in the regulations. A student who gave that consent at enrollment may never receive paper, and may not remember agreeing. The General Instructions for Certain Information Returns (2025) (reviewed 30 April 2026) list January 31 as the recipient date for Form 1098-T; for tax year 2025 that moved to February 2, 2026, because January 31 fell on a Saturday.
The student, not the parent, is usually the account holder. When a parent is the firm's client, the request should name the student, the school and the portal, and ask the student to log in. A school name alone tends to get a reply weeks later.
A wage and income transcript lists 1098-series forms that issuers filed with the IRS, so it can confirm whether a school filed anything. The post on the IRS wage and income transcript for missing forms covers how to pull it and why the current year's data fills in late.
Can an education credit be claimed without a 1098-T?
An education credit can sometimes be claimed without a 1098-T. The rule is that the taxpayer or the dependent student must have received one, but the IRS lists exceptions: the school was not required to issue it, or the student requested it after January 31 and the school still did not provide it.
The Instructions for Form 8863 for tax year 2025 (reviewed 30 April 2026) state the general requirement that the taxpayer or dependent "received Form 1098-T, Tuition Statement." They list the cases where the school is not required to furnish the form, such as certain nonresident alien students, expenses paid entirely with scholarships, expenses paid under a formal billing arrangement, and courses that award no academic credit. The 1098-T instructions name the same exceptions from the school's side.
For a school that was required to furnish the form and has not, the Form 8863 instructions allow the credit if the student requested the form after January 31, 2026, before the return was filed, and fully cooperated with the school. For a tax year 2025 return, that means the file should show when the student asked and what the school said. An email to the bursar with a date is enough of a record to keep.
The Form 8863 instructions also say the taxpayer must be able to show the student was enrolled at an eligible school and substantiate the expenses paid. That is where the next section comes in.
Payment records that back up the education credit
The payment records that back up an education credit are the ones showing what was actually paid for qualified expenses in the tax year: the school's account statement, payment receipts, loan disbursement records and scholarship award letters. The Form 8863 instructions warn that the 1098-T may not match what was paid, so these records matter even when the form arrives.
Timing is the main reason. The Form 8863 instructions say only "payments made in 2025 for academic periods beginning in 2025 or beginning in the first 3 months of 2026" count for tax year 2025, and that amounts paid in 2024 or 2026 cannot be used. A spring term billed in December and paid in January can land in a different year from the one the bill suggests.
Five records to request when a 1098-T is missing
| Record | Who holds it | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Student account statement for the calendar year | School, through the student portal | Tuition charged, payments posted and their dates |
| Payment receipts or bank and card statements | The person who paid, often the parent | Who paid, how much, and when |
| Federal or private loan disbursement records | The loan servicer or the school's financial aid office | Loan money applied to the account and its date |
| Scholarship and grant award letters | The school's financial aid office | Grants that reduce qualified expenses |
| Proof of enrollment for each term | The registrar | That the student was enrolled at an eligible school |
Clients rarely think of these as tax documents, because nobody mails them in January. The post on documents clients forget to send covers other records in the same position and the one question that prompts each.
Schema CPA reads receipts and bank statements as well as tax forms, and sorts every page a client uploads by document type, issuer and period, so a payment receipt for tuition lands on the client's list under its issuer and period; the document types Schema CPA reads are listed on the homepage.
1098-T mistake: claiming Box 1 without subtracting Box 5 scholarships
The common 1098-T mistake is treating Box 1 as the qualified expenses and ignoring Box 5. Box 1 is payments received for qualified tuition and related expenses; Box 5 is scholarships or grants the school processed. Box 1 is not reduced by Box 5, so a credit figured from Box 1 alone can overstate the expenses.
The 1098-T instructions say Box 1 is the total payments received for qualified tuition and related expenses, less refunds, and that it is "not reduced by scholarships or grants reported in Box 5." Box 5 is the total scholarships or grants the school administered and processed for the student's costs.
The Form 8863 instructions say to "reduce the qualified education expenses for each academic period by the amount of tax-free educational assistance." They add that a scholarship is generally tax-free unless the student includes it in income, for example when its terms allow it to be used for room and board, and that including it in income can sometimes increase the credit. That choice belongs to the preparer and the client; the point for document collection is that the award letter shows what the scholarship could be used for.
Forms can also change after the return is filed, which raises the amendment question. The post on a corrected W-2 after filing works through that decision for wages.