Thank you for the reply. So my niece receives one scholarship that is specifically need to be applied to tuition and books, and is automatically done so by the school. The other scholarships and grants are able to be used for any expense. After going through the 1098-T, the scholarship used for books and tuition is included in box 5, but the only thing in Box 1 is tuition for tuition. They did not include the cost of the required books or the college billed testing exam fees. That will add close to 1500.00 to her QHEE, but she still has 1,000 more in scholarships and grants than qualified expenses. One reason is that the scholarship dedicated for tuition and books place $1750.00 in her account prior to the end of 2018, even though it was for Spring 2019 tuition.
She paid the summer tuition out of pocket and it is included in the amount they have in box 1. With the exception of the scholarship dedicated to tuition and books, she used her other scholarships to help pay for her housing, along with some 529 money, so she does have an outstanding out of pocket cost of about $2800.00 for the summer tuition. We have never done this, but how would we go about claiming these expenses and/or scholarships to allow her mom to claim an AOTC? I would love information on how we make that work in turbotax and I understand you play with the figures to find the sweetspot as far as taxes?
