-Qualified education expenses are claimed in the tax year they are paid. It does not matter what year is paid *FOR*.
- Scholarships, grants, 529 distributions are claimed as taxable income (initially) in the tax year they are received. It does not matter what year that third party income is "for". The taxability of scholarships, grants and 529 funds are offset by the 'qualified" expenses they are used to pay for.
if you did not report/claim education expenses in prior years, then you can amend those prior year tax returns to claim them.
- You can only use TurboTax for the current tax year and three years back. So if you have any education stuff to claim "prior" to 2016, don't bother. If amending a 2015 tax return or earlier shows that you would get additional refund, the IRS *WILL* *NOT* pay it. There is a three year statute of limitations on this. So amending a 2015 tax return or earlier is a waste of your time.
If you decide to amend a prior year's tax return, you need to start with the oldest first, which would be amending your 2016 tax return.
Note that this is going to be a "LOT" of work on your part, as when you amend the 2017 return you can "NOT" import your education stuff from the amended 2016 return. You will have to manually do the math your self and enter the correct numbers.
Same holds true when you amend the 2018 tax return. You will "NOT" be able to import from your amended 2017 tax return.
