Should I get a copy of his final bill showing transactions for 2017 and enter them manually?
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Most likely you will not receive a statement of any kind. Qualified education expenses are claimed/deducted in the tax year they are paid, and it does not matter what year is paid *for*. Just like scholarships and grants are claimed as taxable income (initially) in the tax year they are received, regardless of what tax year that scholarship or grant may be *for*. So if he graduated in 2017, it's highly likely you paid no qualified education expenses in 2017, as they were all more than likely paid in 2016 prior to the start of the 2017 fall semester in Jan 2017.
Remember, the IRS works in calendar years, while colleges work in academic years. So the reality is, it takes you 5 calendar years to get that 4 year degree. So for example, if you take the AOC for the first four calendar years, you won't qualify for that credit again in the 5th calendar year when they graduate.
If no money is owed to the college, you will not get a bill or anything. However, the student should still be able to log in to their online college account and access the financials under the login. If/when they do that, pay attention to details giving special consideration to the dates.
What matters is the date a payment or credit was applied. It *does not matter* the start date of the class that payment was applied to. So a payment applied on Dec 15 of 2016 for a class that started in Jan of 2017, is reported on the 2016 tax return, and not the 2017 tax return.
If scholarships/grants awarded in 2016 exceeded the qualified expenses they were applied to in 2016, *AND* the school did not refund the difference to the student, then you would tell the 2017 program that the first thing applied to 2017 expenses was that scholarship money "carried over" from 2016. Then continue on from there.
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