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I was a high school student taking college classes for concurrent credit. How do I answer the question "Were you working on an Associate, Bachelor's, or Graduate Degree?"

 
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2 Replies
AmyC
Employee Tax Expert

I was a high school student taking college classes for concurrent credit. How do I answer the question "Were you working on an Associate, Bachelor's, or Graduate Degree?"

It depends.

  • As a high school student, your parents should be claiming you and any education credits. As a dependent, you would not enter a 1098-T on your taxes and would not be working on any degree.
  • If you are independent, you can say you are working on a degree but you don't want to claim the AOTC because it has a 4 year limit and you want to maximize it when used.

 

References:

Available Education Credits

IRS Q & A about education credits

Tax Benefits for Education: Information Center| IRS

Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education 

Qualified Education Expenses - Internal Revenue Service

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Hal_Al
Level 15

I was a high school student taking college classes for concurrent credit. How do I answer the question "Were you working on an Associate, Bachelor's, or Graduate Degree?"

Q.  How do I answer the question "Were you working on an Associate, Bachelor's, or Graduate Degree?"

A. You answer no, unless you were officially enrolled as a degree candidate.  Just getting dual credit is not enough. 

 

From pub 970: "Example 3. During the 2022 fall semester, Larry was a high school student who took classes on a half-time basis at College X. Larry wasn't enrolled as part of a degree program at College X because College X only admits students to a degree program if they have a high school diploma or equivalent. Because Larry wasn't enrolled in a degree program at College X during 2022, Larry wasn't an eligible student for tax year 2022."  Reference: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch02.html

 

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