American Opportunity Tax Credit Eligibility Incorrect in TurboTax (1099-T TIN vs. Universities allowed to use Canada T2202)

[frogschool]

How do I override this in TurboTax. As American citizen's we can use this program as part of the tax treaty.

Obviously, a Canadian University would not have a TIN. TurboTax is confused, and won't allow an override that I can tell despite the fact that I'm allowed to use the T2202 as an alternative... no way I can tell to get around TT's mistake.

[Vanessa A]

You cannot take an education credit for a school that is not a qualifying university.   In order to claim the credit, your school must be listed as an eligible institution with the Department of Education.  If it is listed, then assuming you  meet the rest of the criteria then you can take it.  If it is not listed, then you cannot take  an education credit.

You would not be able to override this in TurboTax.

[frogschool]

Hi Vanessa, I didn't see any foreign universities in the link you provided.

The university in question is qualified. For reference, here is the text from Pub 970. 

"An eligible educational institution... also includes certain educational institutions located outside the United States that are eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the U.S. Department of Education. "

I know I can take the credit, I'm just saying that TurboTax incorrectly ignores the tax treaty between the two countries, and insists on a TIN which is not required. I'm hearing from you that this bug is not something that can be overridden. Is there a way to file a bug report in this forum (or how to I file it elsewhere) to allow the developers to fix the issue?

[Vanessa A]

No, this is not something that needs to be fixed as the credit is disallowed if the school is not an eligible institution. 

U.S. taxpayers may claim the AOTC on their U.S. federal income tax return for qualified education expenses paid to an eligible educational institution if certain requirements are met. Among other things, U.S. federal tax laws require the following to be eligible for the AOTC:

• Beginning in 2016, a taxpayer is not eligible for the AOTC unless the tax return claiming the credit includes the EIN issued by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the student’s educational institution. 26 U.S.C. § 25A(g)(1)(B)(iii).
• Also beginning in 2016, a taxpayer is generally not eligible to claim the AOTC unless the student receives an IRS Tuition Statement (Form 1098-T) from the student’s educational institution. 26 U.S.C. § 25A(g)(8)

Department of Ed: Title IV Eligible Foreign Schools and the American Opportunity Tax Credit

[frogschool]

Okay thanks, that got me a little closer... they do have an EIN, so it looks like I can claim it despite them not being listed on the first link you forwarded. As we're getting close to tax time, I hired an accounting firm to file this. They'll use the EIN. They assured me that don't need the 1099-T to get AO credit.  They'll also help with FBAR filing, and the complexities of calculating 'definitely related' deductions for this year... areas where TurboTax simply points to the IRS publications and asks me to figure it out. As I generally prefer to do my own with software, will likely look at https://www.myexpattaxes.com/ for next year, instead of US TurboTax... at least for the US taxes. TurboTax Canada seems to still cover me well for Canadian filing, so will stick with that for now. Thanks for your help as we figured how to handle this tax situation together, it was a good partnership.