I have a question about the "how-to" process of getting TurboTax to allow my daughter to claim the AOTC. I'm just doing this in advance for 2021 taxes using TurboTax 2020 as a proxy for how it will work.
Our situation is this:
- My daughter graduated this spring after four regular years of college, so prior to 2021 she has not completed four years of college.
- She started graduate school this summer/fall.
- We've claimed the AOTC only once (or maybe twice) in the years she was in college.
I created a test return using TurboTax 2020 and if I ONLY enter her undergrad 1098-T, she qualifies for the AOTC. If I check the box on the graduate school 1098-T for graduate school, it says she no longer qualifies because she has "Already completed four years of college". If I uncheck that box or remove the graduate school 1098-T, then it properly shows that she qualifies for the AOTC.
To me, this seems like a bug in TurboTax, because being in graduate school in the same year as finishing undergrad doesn't seem like a disqualifying reason for not receiving the AOTC.
Is there something I'm missing? Is there some place in TurboTax to indicate how many times the AOTC has been claimed?
This question, answered by @KurtL1, seems to be similar, but TurboTax doesn't seem to actually allow this to happen.
