File 1098-E Online

1098-E thresholds and deadlines by tax year

The $600 threshold has not moved and is not indexed for inflation. It is measured on interest received during the year, per borrower and per lender, so the same borrower can be below it with two servicers and still have deductible interest to claim.

Source: IRS, Instructions for Forms 1098-E and 1098-T (2026)

What's New on Form 1098-E for Tax Year 2026

One change, and it is structural. On the recipient and borrower blocks the address fields have been separated into individual entry boxes. Nothing you report changes, but a loan file that packed a whole address into one column now maps to several.

The $600 threshold has not moved and both boxes work as they did. There is no new box and no renumbering.

One thing that did change is not on this form at all: the exclusion from income for discharged qualified student loan debt under section 108(f)(5) expired on December 31, 2025. That affects a Form 1099-C for a loan that was forgiven, not a 1098-E for interest that was received. See also our tax year 2026 changes page.

What is Form 1098-E?

Form 1098-E reports $600 or more of interest received on one or more qualified student loans from a single borrower during the year.

Box 1 is the interest received. Box 2 is a checkbox, ticked when box 1 does not include loan origination fees or capitalized interest — which tells the borrower whether box 1 is the whole of their deductible interest or only part of it.

Borrowers use it to claim the student loan interest deduction, subject to income limits and other eligibility rules that are their concern rather than yours.

Who needs to file Form 1098-E?

• Financial institutions, governmental units and their agencies, educational institutions, and any other person who receives $600 or more of student loan interest from an individual in the course of a trade or business.
• The test is interest received during the year, not the loan balance and not what was billed.
• It is per lender as well as per borrower. A borrower who paid $400 to you and $400 to another servicer gets no form from either of you.
• Where several parties are connected to the same loan, the first to receive the interest payment in the ordinary course of business is generally the one required to file.
• You may use Form W-9S, or an equivalent electronic process, to obtain or confirm the borrower's name and taxpayer identification number.

Form 1098-E box by box

Box 2 is small and consequential. It tells the borrower whether the figure in box 1 is the whole of their deductible interest or only part of it, and a lender that leaves it unticked is asserting that origination fees and capitalized interest are already in box 1.

How the $600 test actually works

You file for each individual from whom you received $600 or more of interest on one or more qualified student loans during the year, in the course of your trade or business. Below $600 from that borrower, no form is required.

The test is on interest received in the year, not on the loan balance and not on what was billed. It is also per lender: a borrower who paid $400 to you and $400 to another servicer gets no 1098-E from either of you, and may still have $800 of deductible interest to claim.

Where several parties are connected to the same loan, the first to receive the interest payment in the ordinary course of business is generally the one that files. You may use Form W-9S, or an equivalent electronic process, to get or confirm the borrower's name and taxpayer identification number.

1098-E Pricing

Volume pricing — each band charged at its own rate

Optional add-ons

Included at no extra cost

• Direct IRS e-filing — no Form 1096 needed, it is a paper transmittal
• Free recipient PDF copies to download and share
• Bulk Excel/CSV import and built-in error validation
• CFSF state filing for participating states
• Secure storage of your filing data for 4 years

1099, 1098, W-2G, 5498 forms share this tier table. Volume tiers are counted per form type within a filing, so a large batch of 1098-E reaches the cheapest band on its own.