How can I choose the lifetime learning credit I'm eligible for, rather than the tuition deduction that turbotax automatically selected for me?

[JulieS]

If you review the Education section, at the end of it, Turbo Tax will analyze the amount of tax savings you will get for each tax benefit. If you don't want the largest refund, you will have the opportunity to see other options. Here is how:

1. Log in and Continue your return.
2. Use the search box toward the upper right corner to search for 1098-T.
3. Click Go to 1098-T. Click through the screens until you get to the one titled, Next, We'll See Which Deduction or Credit Will Save You the Most. on this screen, you will see if you qualify for other tax breaks.
4. Click Maximize My Education Tax Break. 
5. When the analysis is complete, click Continue.
6. Turbo Tax will recommend the one that increases your refund the most. Underneath that, you will see, Show Me Results for What Else I Qualify For, in blue. Click that and it will show you the other tax breaks, for which you qualify. 

[Kay123]

Hi Julie,

You answered how to view the tax break I qualify for. I need to know how to manually select the lower tax break I qualify for. When I click on learn more, there is a link to instructions on how to do this, but the link takes me to an error page.

Thank you

@JulieS 

[KTurb]

I'm having this same issue too. If you find you or anyone finds a way to manually choose education credits please let me know.  I'm using the Deluxe version of TurboTax from the one Costco sells.

[Hal_Al]

It's probably not that you didn't qualify for the Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC) but that TT has selected Tuition and Fees Deduction as your best alternative. This frequently happens when you federal tax liability goes to zero. the Tuition and Fees Deduction, reduces your federal AGI and that reduces your state taxable amount (in most states).
You can check it by typing letme in the search box in TT, then 'jump to' and it will give you the option to select LLC. Try it, if you get better results, leave it, otherwise change it back.

The lifetime learning credit is a credit against tax owed. If you owe no tax because you don't have income, you  have no tax to be reduced by the credit. 

[Jeanette1011]

I am using TT Deluxe but it looks the same in other versions of the software. Here's what I did:

1. In the top left corner of the TT window select "Forms"

2. On the left hand side of the TT window there will be a list of all the forms in your tax return, select "Tuition Summary" 

3. Scroll to Part II - Optimized Education Expenses for the Lowest Tax and select "3. Manual"

4. Go back to the list of forms and select "Student Info Wk" for the student taking the credit. The Student Info Worksheet will be directly below the Dependent Worksheet (Name) if it is for a dependent. 

5. Scroll to Part VII - Education Credit or Deduction Election and select the credit you want to take. 

6.  Select "Easy Step" in the top left corner and continue with your return.

DO NOT RUN THE OPTIMIZER or it will change your deduction back to whichever deduction is most beneficial. In my case, it chose the American Opportunity Credit. Since you can only take that credit for 4 years and my expenses are pretty minimal this year ($50), I want to take the Lifetime Learning Credit and save the AOT Credit for more expensive school years. 

[pahasappa]

Thanks for the help!  I have two children in college and one a senior in high school.  All my kids as seniors in high school have taken college classes thru a community college.  Using the optimized method uses up one of the four years allowed per student on the American Opportunity Credit.  The tuition we paid for my youngest child to take a few college classes as a senior in high school is not going to give me the best tax return in the long run. 

I made this mistake when my other children were seniors in high school and now in his final year of college we cannot take the American Opportunity Credit.

 Tuition for the 2 college accredited classes as a senior in high school is about one tenth the tuition now that he is a senior in college.  Probably costing me roughly $1000 in missed tax credit.

Your help got me in to change the settings to manual and selecting the Lifetime Learning Credit. 

I did have to select manually for all three of my children as it appears it is all or nothing when manual is selected.

Not impressed with turbo tax on the link that goes to an unfound page.

[Hal_Al]

Type> letme <in the search box.  That will take you to a screen to choice the LLC

[Carl]

[edited by moderator]

It's easy "IF YOU KNOW HOW" with the desktop version. I do not know if this also applies to the online version. But in the search box at the top right enter the word "LETME" (without the quotation marks" and click the search button or icon. Give it time. Then click the "Jump to Letme" link when it appears.

Work through the section and one of the screens will allow you to change to "ONLY" those credits you qualify for based on the information you have already entered into your tax return *at* *this* *specific* *point* *in* *time*.

So if you change it to a credit you qualify for now, and later based on information you enter into the program, you don't qualify for it, then the program will remove your selection and will change it back to the one you do qualify for, assuming you qualify for one of the credits at all.