American Opportunity Tax Credit is able to be claimed when it wasn’t able to be before. Did I do something wrong, or something right?

[Thunderboy]

So I’m trying to get a head start on me and my spouses tax return. We’ve been students for the past few years, even before we got married, and couldn’t claim the AOTC before. I always assumed it was because we went to a unaccredited college that didn’t issue 1098-T forms despite having the schools EIN, but I had friends in the past who could claim the credit (they were transfers from accredited colleges and had student loans). 
For some reason I figured I’d try to claim the AOCT this year, so I put in the school’s EIN info and it actually worked. I don’t know if I’ve been doing something wrong the past few years, or if I did something wrong this time lol. So my questions are:

1 can students of unaccredited colleges claim the AOCT?

2 is there a special form I need to fill out to claim it? I found that I might get a letter or notice from the IRS saying I need to fill out a form 8862 to claim it but I haven’t received such letter or notice.

3 would I need to go back and amend previous tax filings to claim the AOTC from years past?

Thanks for your time!

[xmasbaby0]

To see if a school is eligible to take education credits

Enter your school at the link below, to see if it's on the dept. of education list.

https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home

[DaveF1006]

It depends.  According to the IRS, "To be eligible to claim the AOTC or the lifetime learning credit (LLC), the law requires a taxpayer (or a dependent) to have received Form 1098-T, Tuition Statement, from an eligible educational institution, whether domestic or foreign". 

Generally, students receive a form 1098 T Tuition Statement, from their school by January 31". So in this case, an uncredited college is not an eligible institution to receive the credit. To verify, look at the link that xmasbaby0 provided in the post above to see if your institution's name is on the list.

You would not receive a request to fill out a Form 8862 from the IRS unless you claimed the credit in a previous tax return and if the credit was claimed in error.  Since you have never filed for it, you would not have received the request for that form.

if you are unable to file this year because of the IRS requirement I listed in my opening paragraph, there is no need to amend your previous year's returns.

American Opportunity Credit

@Thunderboy 

[Hal_Al]

Q. Did I do something wrong, or something right?

A. It may be just that you got married.  A full time unmarried student, under age 24, even if you don't qualify as a dependent, is only eligible for the refundable portion of the American Opportunity Credit if he supports himself by working. You cannot be supporting yourself on parental support, 529 plans or student loans & grants. It is usually best if the parent claims that credit. It could also be that you were claimed as a dependent in the past.

 Q.  Can students of colleges  that are not an "eligible institution" claim the AOTC?

A. No. If a school is unaccredited, it almost certainly not on the DOE's list of eligible institutions. If TT is giving you the credit, for such a school, you have answered something wrong in the interview.