As of Jan. 30, a little more than 58 percent of UW-Eau Claire students accessed their 1098T-Forms online, said Debbie Wells, the Bursar in the business office on campus.
“That’s pretty good,” she said, considering the fact that this is the first year the 1098T form has been sent electronically. The 1098T form is a tuition tax form that is required to be sent out by the Internal Revenue Service because people may need that information for their federal taxes, Wells said.
However, the form isn’t new to the UW System. Formerly, the 1098T form was delivered in hard copy for 10 years, Wells said. However, due to a new contract with University Accounting Services, it is now electronic.
Wells said an advantage of the electronic 1098T form is that it allows the student to print more than one copy if necessary, as opposed to a single hard copy. Also, sending the form electronically saves money on paper and mail fees, she added.
Freshman Heather Mundt, one student who did use the electronic version of the 1098T form said that it was pretty easy to follow the directions in order to find and then print the form, even though she didn’t know whether or not this form was a hoax.
“I was kind of confused,” Mundt said.
As for the percentage of students who chose not to open the document, not to worry, Wells said. Paper copies of the 1098T form will be sent to student’s permanent addresses today. Wells thinks that the students who chose not to access their form electronically did so because they were leery of information on the Web, she said.
“I think they weren’t sure,” she added.
Freshman Nickey Pietila was one of the percentage of students who didn’t follow the links to retrieve the 1098T form, even after receiving multiple e-mails concerning it.
“I thought if it was important, they would send a hard copy,” Pietila said.
Eau Claire isn’t the only school that has switched to the electronic version of this form; the entire UW system switched, Wells said.
A final advantage of the electronic 1098T Form is the safety, she said. The UAS vender who is responsible for the switch worked hard to make it safe and the information is on a secure Web site, Wells added.
And for the first time going electronic, Wells thinks that it went pretty well.
“I think this has been fairly successful.”
