Tax Information

At the end of each tax year, Cal Poly will furnish a 1098-T form - also known as a Tuition Statement - to each student who was enrolled and paid (either through personal payments or the application of financial aid) qualified education expenses (limited by the IRS to tuition and most mandatory base fees) during that tax year.

The 1098-T is made available by January 31 of the new year. Once you Consent to View Online*, your 1098-T Form is available through your Cal Poly portal as soon as it has been produced. If you do not consent to view online, the form will be mailed to the student's mailing address via standard US mail. Regardles of the delivery method chosen, the data on the form is also reported to the IRS.

• Using Information in the 1098-T

  Please speak with your tax professional regarding the proper use of information provided in the 1098-T.

  • The Box 1 amount will not match all "Registration & Other Fees" paid during the year. The Health Services Fee is not a qualified expense (by IRS standards), and therefore, is not included in the Box 1 total.
  • The Box 5 amount only includes "free money" (grants & scholarships) and does not include any loans.
  • Housing & Dining expenses are not qualified for income tax credit purposes and will not be reported on the 1098-T form.
  • The 1098-T should not be used to validate payments from a 529 or College Savings Account as many payments that are qualified for 529 purposes are not reported on the 1098-T form.
  • The 1098-T may be downloaded from the Cal Poly portal. Use the "Form 1098-T Tuition Statement" option in the Self Service section of the Money Matters tab to access all 1098-T forms and then click on a tax year to see a PDF df pop-up of the form.
• Consent to View Online

  As part of Cal Poly's "Go Green" efforts, we encourage all students to access and view their 1098-T form electronically. Not only does this save the environment and the cost of postal service, you will get the form sooner and more reliably than a paper form sent to the "Mailing" address in your portal.

  From the Money Matters tab of the student Poly Portal (my.calpoly.edu), use the "Form 1098-T Tuition Statement" option in the Financial Links (right side) or Self Service (below the gold "Make a Payment Now" button) section. In the next window, "Grant Consent" and click "Submit".

  Granting consent to receive your 1098-T via online access need only be given once.

• Revised 1098-T Reporting for 2018 Tax Year

  Until 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) permitted colleges and universities to choose between two methods for reporting Qualified Tuition and Related Expenses (QTREs) to students on the Form 1098-T. Like most universities, Cal Poly chose to report QTREs in Box 2 (charges posted for QTREs), rather than in Box 1 (payments received for QTREs). Recent legislation now requires reporting payments received for QTREs in Box 1 of the 1098-T, rather than reporting the amount billed in Box 2. Cal Poly has implemented this change for the tax year ending December 31, 2018.

  In order to credit you with a payment in the 2018 Tax Year, Cal Poly must receive your payment before 12/31/2018. Because the campus is closed for the holiday break, payments by paper check or in person must be received at the University Cashier's Office no later than 4pm on Friday, December 21, 2018. Online payments through CASHNet Online Payment System (eCheck or Credit Card) must be completed no later than 5pm on Monday, December 31, 2018.

  One impact of this change for the tax year ending December 31, 2018, is that the amount reported in Box 1 may include your Winter Quarter 2018 payments only if the payments were received and processed in 2018. Similarly, an amount may have been reported in 2017 (as a charged amount) and also again in 2018 (as a received payment) because the reporting method changed.

As per the Taxpayer Relief Act (TRA), student loan lenders must provide interest paid information to their loan borrowers annually.

• Federal Perkins and Institutional Student Loans

  Cal Poly is the loan lender for these loan types. As such, we have contracted with a billing service, ECSI, to provide our borrowers with the required annual interest paid information, as well as repayment management services.

  Any borrower that paid interest on their Cal Poly student loan in the designated tax year will receive interest paid information on their February, March, or April ECSI-generated billing statement. You may obtain a copy of your billing statement by accessing the ECSI web site: http://www.ecsi.net, or you may call ECSI for the information: (888) 549-3274.

• Most Federal Loans

  Federal Direct (Sub/Unsub); Parent (PLUS); Alternative; and All Other Loan Types With A Lender Other Than Cal Poly

  Please contact your loan lender(s) for your annual interest paid information.