I'm not being claimed as a dependent, but someone else paid for my tuition. Do I list education expenses?

[GeoffreyG · Accepted solution]

As long as you are not being claimed as a dependent on another taxpayer's return this year, then yes.  You can consider the money paid for tuition, fees, books, and other related educational expenses as being your "own money," if it is either borrowed by you (i.e., a student loan) or is gifted to you by another person.  It does not matter for purposes of this analysis if the other party paid the money directly to your school, or if they first gave it to you and then you paid your school.  The determination is the same, with respect to your eligibility for any of the various educational tax benefits:  American Opportunity Credit, Lifetime Learning Credit, or the Tuition & Fees deduction.

For more information on all of these items, you can refer to IRS Publication 970 (Tax Benefits for Education).  Here is a courtesy link to that document:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf

Thank you for asking this question.