Can I claim a deduction for my wife's college tuition? She paid nearly $15,000, but entering the 1098-T info does not give us any sort of credit.

spencer-plank · ‎June 6, 2019

georgesT · ‎June 6, 2019

Yes, you can claim the education credit for your wife college tuition if you meet the IRS requirements.

Qualifications for claiming the American Opportunity Tax Credit are:

You paid qualified education expenses for higher education (see Related Information below)
You paid education expenses for eligible students
The eligible student is you, your spouse, or a dependent for whom you claim an exemption
Your modified adjusted gross income is $90,000 ($180,000 if married filing jointly) or less (The credit is reduced between $80,000 and $90,000 ($160,000 and $180,000)
You must be taking courses at an eligible education institution, which is any college, university, or vocational school with a student aid program administered by the US Department of Education.

You must be considered an eligible student:

You are enrolled at least half-time in a program leading to a degree,certificate, or other recognized credential
You had at least one academic period beginning during the year
You did not use the American Opportunity Tax Credit in any four previous years
You did not complete the first four years of post-secondary education before the beginning of the year

You are not eligible to claim the American Opportunity Tax Credit if:

Your filing status is Married Filing Separately.
Taxpayer is listed as a dependent on another person’s return.
You and your spouse were non-resident aliens.
You have a felony drug conviction.

You are eligible to claim the Lifetime Learning Credit if all of the following requirements are met:

You (or your dependent or a third party) paid qualified education expenses for higher education.
You paid the education expenses for an eligible student.
The eligible student is you, your spouse, or a dependent you claim an exemption for on your tax return.
Your modified adjusted gross income is less than $65,000($131,000 if you are married filing jointly).
The credit is reduced between $55,000 and $65,000 ($111,000 and $131,000).

One of the advantages of the Lifetime Learning Credit is that you can take the credit every year for higher education as long as you meet the qualifying requirements.

Note that you cannot claim the Tuition and Fees Deduction as this expired at the end of 2016. See below.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3302271

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jdb1964 · ‎March 7, 2020

i entered tuition expenses of 20k+ from box 1 of a 1098t for my adult child who qualifies as a dependent as he was a full time student. I am within the income parameters for married filing jointly. I meet the other qualifications you listed. This my son's first year to college. Turbo Tax did not give me either the lifetime education credit nor the American opportunity credit. the line is zero , where as last year, that line is 5,714 for my other son for these credits

Hal_Al · ‎March 7, 2020

You've entered something wrong.

Go through the entire education interview until you reach a scree titled "Your Education Expenses Summary". Click edit next to the student's name. That should take you to a screen “Here’s your Education Summary”. Click edit next to the section you want to change; tuition, in your case.

Details:

To enter your Form 1098-T information (even when TurboTax thinks it has already been entered and is showing $0), go through the entire education expenses section of your return until you reach the screen titled “Your Education Expenses Summary”, then follow these steps:

Click Edit next to the student name.
On the screen titled “Here’s your Education Summary”, click Edit beside Tuition.
Enter the information from your Form 1098-T.

To go directly to the Education section of your return, use these steps:

On the top row of the TurboTax online screen, click on Search (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax locate the search box in the upper right corner)
This opens a box where you can type in “education” (be sure to enter exactly as shown here) and click the magnifying glass (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax, click Find)
The search results will give you an option to “Jump to education”
Click on the blue “Jump to education” link

Also see: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/entering-importing/help/how-do-i-enter-form-1098-t/00/26336

jdb1964 · ‎March 7, 2020

I had to go into forms view, make the corrections to the college tuition forms, then i went back to regular view and at the end of the education section, TT correctly selected the tax credit. I either incorrectly selected something the first time I went through the education section or this is a bug in the program. the first time i went all the way to the end and thought that the tool to check the return might find an error, it did not. when i went to forms, multiple forms had errors including the education section. But thanks, I see other people having the same issue, check your forms!