Full time or part time student?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 1, 2019
1 reply
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I graduated from undergrad in May 2016. I was a full time student for my spring semester. Fall 2016 I was no longer in school. Do I mark myself as a full time student (for when I was in school) or a part time student (since I was only in school one semester of the year).

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Carl

Level 11

You are considered a full time student if you were enrolled as "at least" a half time student for a semester that began in the tax year.
Generally, you get no education deductions for the calendar year you graduate. Remember, the IRS works in calendar years and colleges work in academic years. So the reality is, it takes you 5 calendar years to get that four year degree. Generally (but not always) all *qualified* education expenses for the last semester of your senior year are paid before that semester starts. In your case, they would most likley have been paid and claim in tax year 2015, which was your forth calendar year in college. So for those credits limited to four years, if they were all used, then you can't claim them on your 2016 return. Again, this is not something in concrete, as you very well could have paid some qualified education expenses in January of 2016. But if you and your parents together (if they claimed you as a dependent) have already claimed the AOC for the first four calendar years you were in college, then you can't claim it for a 5th time on your 2016 return.