my son is in 11 grade and took duel credit classes at local tech college.
As an 11th grader, I feel confident is assuming your son was under the age of 19 on Dec 31 of 2019. Therefore, he qualifies as your dependent on your tax return. Period.
If (and only if) your son will be filing a tax return, then your son "must" check the box on his tax return to indicate, "I can be claimed on someone else's tax return". He has no choice and it does not matter if your actually claim him as a dependent on your return, or not. The key word is "qualifies". Your son "qualifies" as your dependent, and that's all it takes.
we used scholarship money and we got a 1098-t for that with money in box 5. we never got any cash or left over money it was all for tuition.
Okay, I"m with you so far.
we also had money on box 1 that was more than what was in box 5. do I still have to fill out a tax return for him for 900.00 that we never got?
No. Everything concerning his education stuff will be reported on your (the parent's) tax return, assuming you are "in fact" going to claim him as a dependent on your tax return.
Since box 1 is greater than box 5, that indicates that somebody (the parents or the student) paid some money out of their pocket. But regardless of who paid out of their pocket, you the parent get to claim that difference as an out-of-pocket qualified education expense. This will qualify you for one or more education credits, depending on a number of factors such as your MAGI for the tax year.
By default, the program will most likely pre-select the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) for you. However, since you are limited to getting that credit for only four tax years (a four year college is typically 5 tax years) I recommend that you do "NOT" take that specific credit. The most you can get for that credit is $2,500 and one of the limiting factors is how much you paid for qualified education expenses out of your pocket.
Being that your son attended in a "dual status" classification, what you will get for the AOTC will be a pittance, compared to what you "could" get when he's "really" in college as a full time student. Therefore I recommend you elect out of the AOTC and take the LLC (Lifetime Learning Credit) instead. That leaves you all of his first four years of college to take the AOTC when it will have the most value for you and give you the biggest "bang" for your buck.
While the AOTC is limited to a maximum credit of $2,500 and you can only use it four years, the LLC is limited to $2000 and there is no limit on the number of years you can take the LLC. Besides, if you take the AOTC there's no way your allowed credit will come close to exceeding $2000. So that's why you want to claim the LLC instead and save the AOTC for the college years when you very well "Might" exceed the $2,000 maximum of the LLC.
