How come I don't qualify for the American Opportunity Tax Credit?

[jessiewang3]

I am a full-time, third year student in a four-year university.

[IsabellaG · Accepted solution]

There are a lot of details involved in claiming a tax benefit for Education. For instance, if you can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's tax return, you won't be allowed to take any education deductions/credits.

You may have answered a question incorrectly somewhere along the way in the Education section. 

Go back to Education, Expenses and Scholarships, and choose revisit. 

On the screen Your Education Expenses Summary, choose Edit.

On Here's Your Education Summary, go through each section to make sure that you answered the questions accurately. If there are Learn More sections, select them to read about those entries. (see the screenshot).

Make sure that you have entered that you are at least a half time student, and that you haven't  taken the Hope or American Opportunity Credit for 4 previous years.

If you see a message as to why you can't claim the expenses, please respond here with that information

[ctthone]

-There is no taxable income in your return - Scholarships, grants, and other tax free assistance exceed the education expenses - There were no net qualified education expenses

[shaniab17]

mine is saying the same thing ? WHY??

[roeallen1]

mine is saying the same thing, have either of you gotten it figured out

[sgonza2975]

Mine says the same thing.????

[emily-anderson]

"Right now, nobody qualifies for this deduction, which is still under review for 2018."

[clandy666]

I got the same response, which makes no sense. I got it last year, and there's no reason I shouldn't get it again this year.

[arc]

I am getting a similar answer. My daughter got the credit for 3 previous years, we should get it this year.

[arc]

"there were no net qualified education expenses"  she's got $6200 in tuition and $1300 in other education expenses

[clandy666]

I was able to qualify for it just now. From what I read elsewhere, if you already owe $0 in federal taxes, chances are you won't get it. But if you do owe federal, then you'll qualify for it, and the balance of the credit will go toward lowering what you owe federally. I found a mistake in my earlier filings, fixed it, and was able to qualify.

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/aotc">https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/indi...>

[sam999888]

American Opportunity Credit is refundable. So even there is no taxable income in your return, you should get 40% of $2500 = $1000 according the rule, is this correct?

[clandy666]

$1000 is what I've gotten for the past two years in a row. Not sure about the taxable income part of your question.

[troskesp1]

My daughter should qualify for the AOC $1000 and Turbo Tax says she does not.  She has income and qualified expenses.  After TT subtracts the standard deduction of $12,000 from her total income of $6000 the taxable income is $0.  TT says she has no taxable income. This shouldn't make any difference for the AOC.  She should be eligible for the $1000 credit.

[chantelskinner]

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).