Can both divorced parents claim their payed portion of their son's college tuition and fees on 1098-T on their separate taxes, one payed fall other payed spring semester?

[iron_light]

For 2016. My ex-wife payed my son's (21 years old) total college expense for the fall semester. I payed my son's total college expenses for the spring semester (due in December of 2016 for 2017). We will do this again for 2017 fall semester and 2018 spring semester. Can we both claim a deduction on our 2016 taxes of our portion of our son's college expenses?

[xmasbaby0 · Accepted solution]

No.  In order to use the tuition on your tax return, you have to claim the child as your dependent,  If you are divorced then only one of you can make that claim.  Work something out between the two of you such as alternating the years you claim your child while he/she can be a tax dependent,

[macuser_22]

Note that the child is 21, well beyond the age of custody and the ability to release the dependent to the non-custodial parent.  Only the parent that the child physically lived with for more than half the year (or would have lived with except for a temporary absence to attend school) can claim the dependent per the dependent rules for a Qualifying Child.  You cannot alternate years for an adult child over age 18 - the age of emancipation in most states.

[The Singing Tax Lady]

Wow, I'm finding conflicting answers on this. 

A CPA firm in LA is claiming that the custodial parent gets the credit, regardless of who gets to claim the dependency and CTC. And yes, I know CPAs can be wrong, but you'd think they wouldn't post something on their web page without checking it.

The only thing I can find in IRS Pub 970 is: " For purposes of the qualified tuition reduction, a dependent child of divorced parents is treated as the dependent of both parents. "

Boy, that's not helpful.

[Hal_Al]

Who Can Claim the Credit?
Generally, you can claim the American opportunity credit
if all three of the following requirements are met.
• You pay qualified education expenses of higher education.
• You pay the education expenses for an eligible student.
• The eligible student is either yourself, your spouse, or
a dependent you claim on your tax return.

Pub 970, page 11

Similar wording is on page 23 for the Lifetime Learning Credit

The confusion may come from the fact that the custodial parent usually has the right to claim the student as a dependent.  But if the custodial parent releases the dependency to the other parent, then the non custodial parent claims the education credit, as well as the other dependent credit. 

The dependency rules have a slight twist for emancipated students, but it's still the parent claiming the dependent that gets the education credit.