Reading Instructions

So, there's a little paragraph that has a very important third sentence in the instructions for federal tax form 1040-A:


Scholarship and fellowship grants.
Scholarship and fellowship grants not reported on Form W-2 must be included in the total on line 7. Also, enter “SCH” and the amount in the space to the left of line 7. However, if you were a degree candidate, include on line 7 only the amounts you used for expenses other than tuition and course-related expenses. For example, amounts used for room, board, and travel must be reported on line 7.

While filling out our returns (one federal and three state forms, gleaning information from three W-2's and two 1098-T's), I remembered the first half of that paragraph, but not the second. So, all the numbers seemed high and we owed everyone something. As we were writing out the checks I was double checking to see if we needed to write in the SCH thing or not and re-read the paragraph. Whoa....that changed everything. We re-figured all of the numbers and we only owed two states and the other state and federal owed us refunds. It made for a total difference of over $1400 in our favor! That's a lot nicer than paying so much.

The papers are all being slid into envelopes now and will be mailed in the morning. I sure hope we filled them all out correctly...