Education

There are two ways that your Son can qualify as your dependent. He can be either a qualifying child or a qualifying relative. One of the requirements to be a qualifying child is that he has to be under the age of 24 and meet the IRS definition of a student. Please refer to page 13 of Pub 501, under the headings, "student defined", "full time student", "school defined", and "vocational high school student" to determine if your child meets the IRS definition of a student. 

If he does NOT meet the IRS definition of a student for 2016, then he might qualify as your qualifying relative. Please refer to the chart on page 12 of pub 501 to see if you meet the requirements to claim your child as a dependent. Please note that there are requirements above the qualifying child and qualifying relative columns that must be met as well.       https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

If he qualifies to be your dependent, then you might qualify for one of the education benefits. If he does NOT qualify as your dependent, you would not be able to claim an education benefit. The amount of your qualified education expenses used to calculate the education benefit would be reduced by the amount of money that was refunded to you. With respect to the additional expenses that you had, room and board are NOT considered qualified education. The books would be qualified education expenses.

According to page 13 of pub 970 under the heading, "refunds received in 2016", "for each student, figure the adjusted qualified education expenses for 2016 by adding all the qualified education expenses for 2016 and subtracting any refunds of those expenses received from the eligible education institution during 2016". Please refer also to the sections, "refunds received after 2016 but before your income tax return is filed" and "refunds received after 2016 and after your income tax return is filed" on page 14 if relevant to your situation. 

Depending on the specific education benefit that you claim, there is separate criteria for student status. 

With respect to the American Opportunity Credit, page 10 of Pub 970 says, "for at least one academic period beginning (or treated as beginning) in 2016, the student both: was enrolled in a program that leads to a degree, certificate, or other recognized educational credential; AND carried at least one half the normal full-time workload for his/her course of study. The standard for what is half of the normal full time workload is determined by each eligible educational institution…."

It also says, "For 2016, treat an academic period beginning in the first 3 months of 2017 as if it began in 2016, if qualified education expenses for the student were paid in 2016 for that academic period". 

Per page 11 of Pub 970, "an academic period includes a semester, trimester, quarter, or other period of study (such as a summer school session) as reasonably determined by an educational institution….." https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf 

With the respect to the Lifetime Learning Credit and the tuition and fees deduction, you would need to have taken at least one course during the year. However, you can also claim this credit if your academic period began in the first 3 months of 2017 and you paid the expenses in 2016.

Please refer to the following FAQs to learn more about the requirements for claiming these benefits. Please also refer to the "related information" links at the bottom of the FAQs for additional information.