As spring begins to bloom and crunch time comes for students who are finishing off the spring semester we can say goodbye to the winter season. Another season that is finally over is tax season, and this year it has been even more stressful, especially for students at Marymount Manhattan College. Taxes are confusing, we go off to college, and all of a sudden we are thrown into the world of adulting. Nobody teaches us how to do taxes properly, and some students do not have the privilege of parents that can, or who will do it for them. To make matters worse, this year some students have found that the tax forms from Marymount’s financial aid department have been full of errors.

The 1098-T forms are filled out by schools and used to calculate the money students receive in scholarships and grants versus how much they have paid out of pocket. The forms use this number to calculate how much you owe to the government. While these forms are not actually sent to the IRS, they are used to calculate expenses that you can write off as educational. Taxes are so much more complicated for students because every individual has many factors to calculate. Some students are dependents for their parents, and others are independent. Some of us are residents of our home states but live in New York for school. Every expense has to be taken into account. There are tax services you can go to, but they can end up costing even more than what you get back in tax returns. 

One student described that she owed $700 last year after doing her taxes and when she filed this year, TurboTax concluded that she owed $2,300. She knew this number could not be right, so she went to Tax.com and it concluded that she didn’t owe anything. It is unclear what caused this large discrepancy, but other students have also had issues this tax season. Another student said that “April 1st (the school) emailed telling me that my 1098 was actually wrong in box #1. Before I even checked it out I asked him what to do if I had already finished my taxes and they told me ‘If you weren’t eligible for the education credit, you may want to amend the taxes for that benefit. I would suggest speaking with a tax professional.’ When I checked the new 1098 the difference was by like $23,000.” Luckily, she had time before the taxes were due and she was able to go to a tax professional who concluded she owed the IRS $200 instead of the previous $500. While these errors were caught in time for people to correct their taxes, they are still very stress-invoking for students who do not know enough about taxes and are anxious about the IRS. One student said she got her correct form too late and did not have time to amend it, which stressed her out but it ended up not changing the outcome of her taxes. 

Personally, I am a dependent for my dad and he does my taxes. I had 3 different employers this past year, in two different states with completely different pay and tax rates. I have scholarships, grants, and loans along with what I paid upfront for my tuition that all needed to be calculated in my 1098-T form. It was a complicated process, but luckily my dad took care of it. When talking to him about it recently, he told me that the 1098-T forms he received from the school were not correct. He did all of the taxes himself but realized it was not adding up and decided to take them to H&R Block. There, the tax expert told him the 1098-T form was in fact wrong and they spent over an hour personally calculating all of my costs. To my shock, having our taxes done by a professional this year along with the money owed to the IRS ended up amounting to $470.

According to Terry Padmore, the director of student accounts here at Marymount Manhattan College, the exact timeline is: “The 1098T’s were processed on January 31, 2022.

On March 29, 2022, we realized Box #1 on the document was calculated incorrectly.

On March 31, 2022, corrected 1098T’s were issued to all students along with an email notification.” The school acted swiftly and professionally in handling these errors, and they answered a handful of inquiries from students. Padmore also said “A number of online services offer free tax preparation. The IRS offers free tax filing at www.irs.gov/freefile.” While these tax forms were fixed in time, it did not leave students that much room to notice and fix their taxes before the due date. With such busy schedules, many students forget to check up on taxes and other financial things that are out of sight. 

While the main issue for most students was avoided, because most students and parents either noticed the issue right away or were not affected by the issue, it still raises an even bigger question. Why are we not prepared enough to do taxes? The United States makes taxes so much more complicated than necessary and the penalties for tax fraud can be very harsh. N’dea Yancey-Bragg writes, “A lack of personal finance education can make navigating money decisions even more intimidating, especially in the face of a $1.5 trillion student loan debt crisis and possible recession on the horizon.” Students need more guidance on financial decisions because the economy is constantly shifting. With debates over the minimum wage and student loan debt, it is more important now than ever to learn how to invest in yourself and keep your finances in order.