For the 'undergrad tuition payments', do I include payments to student loans or no?

[ayemlefebvre]

On the state tax return, do undergrad tuition payments include payments to loans? I paid for school with loans and am now paying off my loans. I put a few thousand into my loans in 2016.

[ThomasM]

No, those are two different & separate things.  Tuition, fees, and other qualifying education expenses are claimed on the tax return for the year you paid them (that's why schools will issue you a 1098-T for a specific year).  If you happened to pay the tuition & fees via student loans, it's still considered money out of your own pocket since you will have to pay the loan amount back.  But it's not the student loan itself that you're claiming, it's the tuition and other fees; the student loan is simply the money you're using to pay for them.

Then, later, when you're in repayment of those loans, you're entitled to claim what you pay annually in student loan interest.  Your lender will send you a 1098-E form for each year you pay interest.

So if you (or your parents) never claimed the original tuition & fees in the year paid, then you would need to go back and amend those tax returns and claim the actual expenses.  Once you're in repayment, all you can deduct from the loan payments is the interest.