College tuition and student loans

[jsspbusiness]

Our daughter got a 1098-T for her tuition and a 1098-E for student loan interest. We paid for both of those items. Does anybody qualify to claim either of these items?

[DoninGA]

If she is a full time student under the age of 24 and your dependent, the Form 1098-T is entered on your tax return.

If you are a co-signer for the student loan and she was your dependent when you applied for the student loan then you can enter the interest paid on the student loan, Form 1098-E, on your tax return if you made payments to the loan.

[jsspbusiness]

She is a full time graduate student and turned 26 last December; she has not been a dependent for a few years, so it sounds like no one can take "advantage" of either item on the tax returns.

[DoninGA]

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@jsspbusiness wrote:

She is a full time graduate student and turned 26 last December; she has not been a dependent for a few years, so it sounds like no one can take "advantage" of either item on the tax returns.

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For the Form 1098-T, No you cannot enter that on your tax return.

For the Form 1098-E you can if she is not making the payments on the loan and you are.

[jsspbusiness]

In your previous reply you stated "If you are a co-signer for the student loan and she was your dependent ...", she was our dependent but  we did not co-sign for the loan. We did, however, make the loan payments and as yet she has not made any of the payments herself. Does the statement that we can put the 1098-E on our return still hold true?

[DoninGA]

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@jsspbusiness wrote:

In your previous reply you stated "If you are a co-signer for the student loan and she was your dependent ...", she was our dependent but  we did not co-sign for the loan. We did, however, make the loan payments and as yet she has not made any of the payments herself. Does the statement that we can put the 1098-E on our return still hold true?

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No.  Since you were not a co-signer on the loan you cannot enter the Student Loan Interest paid on your tax return.

[Vanessa A · Accepted solution]

No.  If you did NOT cosign for the loan, then you cannot claim the interest deduction.  In order to claim the interest deduction you need to be legally liable for the loan.  Since you are not at all liable for the loan, you cannot claim the interest.  Only your daughter would be able to claim the interest deduction.