A missing Form 1098-T does not stop you from claiming the American Opportunity Tax Credit or the Lifetime Learning Credit. If your school doesn’t give you a 1098-T, you can still claim an education credit using your own records, but the IRS wants you to take a specific step first when the school was required to issue the form, and you’ll need to substantiate your qualified expenses yourself on Form 8863.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8863 (2025)
Before doing anything else, figure out which situation you’re in. Some schools aren’t required to send the form at all. Others are, and simply didn’t. The path forward is different.
Was Your School Required to Send One
The IRS exempts schools from issuing a 1098-T in several situations. If any of these describes you, no request is needed and you can proceed straight to gathering your own documentation:
- Courses that don’t award academic credit toward a degree or recognized credential, such as continuing education or professional development.
- Nonresident alien students, unless you specifically ask the school for the form.
- Students whose qualified tuition and fees were entirely covered by scholarships or grants.
- Situations where an employer or a government entity like the Department of Veterans Affairs paid the school directly under a formal billing arrangement and the school kept no separate financial account for you.
These exceptions come from the IRS filing instructions for the form itself.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1098-E and 1098-T (2025) – Exceptions If none of them fit your situation, your school was required to send the form, which means an extra step before you file.
Request the Form From the School First
When the school was required to issue a 1098-T and didn’t, the Form 8863 instructions require you to request it before filing. Specifically, after January 31 of the year following the tax year but before you file your return, you must ask the school to furnish the form and cooperate with the school’s efforts to gather the information needed to produce it.3Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8863 (2025) – Form 1098-T Requirement
Start with the bursar’s office or whichever contact appears on any prior 1098-T you received. Check your student portal too. Many schools post the form there, and if you moved, a mailed copy may have gone to an old address while a digital version is sitting in your online account.
If the school still doesn’t produce the form after you ask, you can file without it. Save the evidence that you asked: a copy of your email, a portal screenshot, or a dated note from a phone call with the name of the person you spoke with. That record shows you followed the required step.
Figure Out Your Qualified Expenses
Without a 1098-T, you’re calculating the number yourself. Getting this right is the whole game.
Qualified expenses for both credits include tuition and fees required for enrollment or attendance at an eligible institution.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 25A – American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Credits The AOTC also covers books, supplies, and equipment needed for your courses even if you buy them somewhere other than the school bookstore, and a laptop qualifies if you need it for attendance. Total AOTC expenses per student can’t exceed $4,000.5Internal Revenue Service. Education Credits Questions and Answers The Lifetime Learning Credit is narrower: it covers books and supplies only if the institution requires you to buy them as a condition of enrollment.
The statute specifically excludes student activity fees, athletic fees, and insurance costs from qualified expenses even when the school bundles them into the tuition bill and requires you to pay them.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 25A – American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Credits Also excluded:
- Room and board
- Transportation
- Medical expenses and student health fees
- Personal or living expenses
These exclusions apply to both credits.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 970 (2025), Tax Benefits for Education On a typical bursar statement, tuition and required enrollment fees sit alongside many charges that don’t qualify. Go through the statement line by line and pull out only what belongs.
Subtract Scholarships and 529 Distributions
Tax-free scholarships and grants reduce your qualified expenses dollar for dollar. Eight thousand dollars in tuition minus a $5,000 scholarship leaves $3,000 available for the credit. You do have the option to treat some scholarship money as taxable income used for living expenses instead of tuition, which preserves more expenses for the credit; the IRS acknowledges this and provides worked examples, and it can come out ahead when the credit gained exceeds the tax owed on the reclassified scholarship.7Internal Revenue Service. The Interaction of Scholarships and Tax Credits
You also can’t use the same expenses for both a tax-free 529 plan distribution and an education credit. Ten thousand in tuition paid with $6,000 from a 529 leaves $4,000 available for the AOTC or LLC. Using both benefits in the same year is fine as long as you have enough total expenses to cover each separately.
File Form 8863 and Keep the Paperwork
Report the credit on Form 8863 and attach it to your Form 1040.8Internal Revenue Service. Form 8863 – Education Credits (American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Credits) You need the school’s name, address, and employer identification number to complete the form. These are usually on the school’s website, in financial aid correspondence, or on a prior year’s 1098-T. If not, call the bursar.
Assemble a documentation package and keep it with your tax records. What you want on hand:
- An itemized billing statement from the school breaking out tuition, fees, and other charges line by line.
- Proof of payment: bank statements, canceled checks, or credit card records showing payments to the school that match the billing statement.
- Enrollment verification, such as an official transcript or registrar’s letter. For the AOTC, this needs to show at least half-time enrollment for at least one academic period during the tax year.
- Scholarship and grant records showing exactly how much you received and what it covered.
The payment amounts should trace from your financial records to specific tuition charges on the school’s invoice. A bank statement showing a payment that matches an invoice line item is much stronger than a lump-sum transfer with no clear connection to tuition.
Keep everything for at least three years after filing, which covers the standard period during which the IRS can initiate an examination.9Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records
If the IRS Sends You a CP2000
Claiming an education credit without a matching 1098-T in the IRS system raises the odds of a CP2000 notice. This is not an audit. It’s a letter saying the IRS’s records don’t match what you reported and proposing a change to your tax.10Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your CP2000 Series Notice
You typically have 30 days from the date on the notice to respond, or 60 days if you live outside the United States.11Internal Revenue Service. IRS Letter CP2000 – Proposed Changes to Your Tax Return Missing the deadline can trigger an automatic assessment of the proposed tax increase plus interest.
Your response should include a short cover letter explaining that the school did not issue a 1098-T (or wasn’t required to), plus the documentation package described above. Send it certified mail and keep copies of everything along with the mailing receipt. If you organized the records at filing time, one exchange is usually enough to close the notice.
A Note on Picking the Right Credit
You can claim only one credit per student per year. The AOTC is worth up to $2,500 per student, with up to $1,000 refundable, but it requires degree-seeking enrollment at least half-time, is limited to the first four years of higher education, and can be claimed for a maximum of four tax years per student.12Internal Revenue Service. American Opportunity Tax Credit The Lifetime Learning Credit is worth up to $2,000 per return, is not refundable, has no year limit and no half-time requirement, and covers graduate school and job-skills courses.13Internal Revenue Service. Lifetime Learning Credit For graduate students, part-timers, and anyone past their fourth year, the LLC is often the only option. Both credits phase out at the same modified adjusted gross income levels.14Internal Revenue Service. Education Credits – AOTC and LLC