Did I Qualify for the American Opportunity Credit?

[alhaji56]

 I have already filed, and am trying to search if I really qualified. I am worried it is delaying my original tax return. I filed on February 2nd, and it got "accepted" and "received" by IRS shortly after.          

I filed as single, and nobody is filing me as a dependent. I'm 21 years old full time college Junior and take care of all my college expenses (books, fees, etc) BUT I do have a federal loan and grants. I pay 50% of my tuition out of hand and the rest loans which I pay monthly. out of pocket

Do I qualify?

[CherylW · Accepted solution]

As long as you meet these criteria from the IRS' American Opportunity Tax Credit, you qualify:

To be eligible for AOTC, the student must:

• Be pursuing a degree or other recognized education credential
• Be enrolled at least half time for at least one academic period* beginning in the tax year
• Not have finished the first four years of higher education at the beginning of the tax year
• Not have claimed the AOTC or the former Hope credit for more than four tax years
• Not have a felony drug conviction at the end of the tax year

[info28]

There is a bug in the logic.  I met all the qualifications for the American Opportunity Credit, yet Turbotax said that I didn't qualify for this credit.  One of the items to qualify for the American Opportunity Credit is that you need to be at least Half time Student.

One of the questions in TurboTax is: Where you at lest half time student?  The the options are 1) Full Time 2) Half Time and 3) Less than half time.  


Being a full time student, I selected option 1) full time; and TurboTax told me I didn't qualify for the credit.  I reviewed my answer to 2) Half Time and TurboTax told me that I did qualify.

Since Full time student is more than Half time and the requirement is to be at least half time; both answers, Half time and Full time should qualify for this credit (assuming that the other requirements are met).