About 1098-Ts

The 1098-T (Tuition Statement) is an IRS tax form filed by eligible education institutions to report payments received and payments due from the paying student. One copy is sent to the student and the other retained by the institution. A summary of the data must be sent to the IRS.

Campus Cafe doesn’t generate 1098-T forms, rather provides an output of data that can be used to complete IRS-supplied forms or sent to third-party vendor ECSI Heartland for processing. 

Please note that per the IRS, data cannot be printed on IRS pre-printed 1098-T forms using a computer printer, as the data will not transfer to the copies. The IRS supplied pre-printed forms are designed to be completed with a typewriter or pen.

Please note the only third-party vendor supported is ECSI Heartland. However, other vendors may accept the file.

Prerequisites

• Configure transaction codes for any charges, payments, grants/scholarships included on the 1098-T.

• Bill students, collect and post payments.

• Award and disburse financial aid, including federal aid, institutional aid and outside scholarships.

• Record student Social Security Numbers on bios.

• For credit-based academic programs, set half-time enrollment credit thresholds in semester date maintenance.

• For clock-hour based academic programs, set years to complete in major maintenance.

Required permissions

Transaction codes

You may use Campus Cafe to record many different charges, payments, scholarships/grants and other financial transactions. Campus Cafe relies on transaction codes to understand which of these transactions should be included on the 1098-T.

Because the 1098-T covers the tax (calendar) year, you’ll need to configure all transaction codes used within that year, even if they’re no longer in use and inactive.

Consult with a tax professional about how your institution will categorize each transaction code. Besides a tax professional, information is available from the IRS 1098-T instructions and the National Association of Colleges and University Business Officers.

Classify a transaction code:

1. Go to Financials > Transaction Codes.

2. Next to the code to classify click the pencil.

3. In Report Code 1098T select:

   • T-Tuition: Transaction codes that create/bill an eligible tuition and related expenses on a student's ledger (e.g., tuition, class program fee, technology fees, etc.). Tuition indicates a qualified tuition or related expense and will appear in the 1098-T box 1.
     Transactions ineligible for tuition and related expenses (e.g., room and board, late charges, application fees, transportation, payment plan fees, collection fees/interest, transcript order fees) shouldn’t be marked with T-Tuition.
     When a transaction code is marked as T-Tuition, it shouldn’t be marked as a payment in Payment Code 1098T.

   • S-Scholarship: Transaction codes for scholarships, grants, and third-party payments, excluding family or loan payments. Scholarship will place the transaction in the 1098T scholarship box (Box 5).

   • Blank or N' - Transaction codes excluded from 1098-T.

4. In Payment Code 1098T select:

   • Blank (--choose one--): Transaction code isn’t a payment.

   • Yes: Transaction code is a qualified payment. Such payments usually include cash, check, credit, online, third-party payments, loans, institutional scholarships, federal and local grants/scholarship, etc.

5. Click Save.

Transaction code examples

Eligible billed tuition and fees expenses

Eligible transaction codes that are billed to the student are typically marked with T-Tuition in the Report Code 1098-T box only; the Payment Code is generally left blank as it is not a payment.

Scholarships

Scholarships are typically marked with both the S-Scholarship in the Report Code 1098-T box and Yes in the Payment Code box. However, if a scholarship is restricted to a non-eligible expense the Payment Code box should be left blank.

Federal and state/local grants

Federal grants are generally marked as both a S-Scholarship the Report Code and Yes in the Payment Code box. However, if a state/local grant is restricted to a non-eligible expense the Payment Code box should be left blank.

Student loans

Loans are marked as Yes in the Payment Code box and not considered scholarships or billed tuition.

Refunds (Issued to the student)

Transaction codes that produce refunds to students should be reviewed for use with the Payment Code 1098-T box with Yes. If the payment code is set for a refund transaction code and a debit is made using that same transaction code, it will reduce the total 1098-T payments by that amount. Generally these are not marked with the T-Tuition" Report Code.

Exclude international students

Your may decide to not issue 1098-Ts to international students.

An international student is a student where on his or her Bios page the International Code is set to Y.

1098-T boxes

Address

You can tell Campus Cafe to show the student’s local address or home address in the 1098-T address box.

1. Go to Admin > Custom Control.

2. In Search enter TEN98T_ADD.

3. Click the pencil.

4. In Parameter Value 1 to use the student’s local address enter Y. Otherwise, leave this box empty to use the student’s home address.

5. Click Save.

Payments received for qualified tuition and related expenses (Box 1)

Sums the transaction codes configured as payments associated with charges marked as qualified charges.

Scholarships or grants (Box 5)

Sums transaction codes associated with scholarships or grants.

Future payments (Box 7)

Campus Cafe checks this box if any student payments received during the tax year are associated with semesters that start between January 1 and March 31 of the subsequent year up to the amount billed for those semester(s).

Half-time student (Box 8)

For each student in a credit-hour program, Campus Cafe sums the enrolled credits by semester for semesters falling within the tax (calendar) year. It then compares the total to the half-time threshold set for the semester in semester date maintenance. If the total meets or exceeds the threshold for any semester within the year, the process indicates the student as half time. (Note semesters can be tied to student degree sites. The process looks first for a semester with the student's degree site and then to the semester with no site attached for the credit thresholds. If neither exist, Campus Cafe assumes six credits constitute half time for undergraduate students and three credits constitute half time for graduate students.)

For each student in a clock-hour program, Campus Cafe evaluates if the years to complete is less than or equal to 2 in major maintenance. If so, the Campus Cafe indicates the student was at least half time.

Graduate student (Box 9)

Graduate student status is determined based on the student's major(s) during the tax (calendar) year. Campus Cafe first evaluates the student's degree(s) start and end dates on the student's degree detail. The process evaluates only degree rows that fall within the tax (calendar) year. Majors within those degree rows are checked against their configuration in major maintenance. Majors with a Credential Level 4 and above are considered a graduate programs and the students with those majors will be marked as graduate students.

In the event the degree start and end dates do not exist, the process will use the student's degree marked as current and evaluate whether the major is marked as a graduate program in major maintenance.

If the student was both a undergraduate and graduate student during the tax (calendar) year, Campus Cafe indicates the student was a graduate student.

Generate the 1098-T data

1. Go to Financials > 1098T Select.

   • School Code: Enter 00.

   • Campus Code: Enter 00.

   • Tax Year: The calendar year (e.g. 2020) for which to produce the 1098-T.

   • Tech/Production Level: Enter 00.

   • Validate Batch: Select the box.

   • The Institution has followed proper TIN procedures: Select to certify that the school has complied with IRS regulations related to the production of 1098-Ts.
     
     

     Open

     

     In this example we are producing 1098-T data for the 2024 tax year.

      

2. Click Create 1098T file.

3. The screen may reload several times, and the Process Launched View Reports appears. Click the link to go to base reports to review the reports.

1098-T data review report

This base report provides a way to review the data elements of individual student 1098-Ts. This report includes students without valid Social Security Numbers.

The report uses the last data set and tax year run from the 1098-T Select screen. Only one 1098-T data set is held at a time.

1. Go to Faculty/Staff > Base Reports.

2. Log in to Base Reports.

3. Click Billing and Accounts Receivable.

4. Click 1098T Review.

5. Set parameters.

6. Click View Report.

ECSI Heartland file

The ECSI Heartland file is a base report that is formatted for upload to ECSI Heartland for its production of 1098-Ts. This report excludes students without valid Social Security Numbers.

The report uses the last data set and tax year run from the 1098-T Select screen. Only one 1098-T data set is held at a time.

1. Go to Faculty/Staff > Base Reports.

2. Log in to Base Reports.

3. Click Billing and Accounts Receivable.

4. Click ECSI 1098T report.

5. Set parameters

   1. Enter your ECSI Client Code: The code provided by ECSI that identifies your institution.

   2. Select Site(s) for Reporting: The report will display only students from the selected student degree site(s).

   3. Enter Year for 1098T Filling: Enter as four numbers the tax year represented by the data (e.g. 2024).

   4. The Institution has followed proper TIN solicitation procedures: The IRS requires that institutions make a good faith effort to collect student Social Security Numbers. Select Yes to indicate to ECSI that an effort has been made.

   5. Select Student Type: Domestic/International: The report will display only students of the selected type. A student is considered international if on the student's Bios page the International Code is set to Yes.

   6. Exclude Students whose Box 1 (Tuition Paid) Equals Box 5 (Scholarships): Select Yes to not display in the report students who tuition has been entirely covered by grants and scholarships as defined by their billing transaction codes.

6. Click View Report.

7. To export the file, click the blue disk and choose Excel (It is important to choose Excel, not the other options.)

   Open

   

8. Save the file to your computer; you will next need to save the file in text format to comply with ECSI requirements. Continue following the directions to do so.

9. Open the file in Excel.

10. In Excel, go to File > Save As.

11. Choose a location to save the file.

12. In File Name enter 1098-T.statement.data.CCYY where “CCYY” represents the reporting year of the 1098-T data, for example for tax year 2019 replace CCYY with 2020 so the file would be 1098-T.statement.data.2019

13. In the Save as type select Text (MS-DOS) (*.txt)

14. Click Save.

15. Prior to submitting the text file to ECSI, open the text file and do a Find and Replace.  Find all double quotes " and replace with nothing. 

16. Log in to the ECSI Client Portal and upload the file.