@Hal_Al @AmyC Thank you so much for your replies. I have spent two days reading a lot of discussions here and thought I understood, but I think I am still confused. I will add more details here to make my case clearer.
In 2024, my son was a full-time student at a University, and he also took a class at a community college in the summer. We are planning to claim him as our dependent and to claim the $2500 AOTC.
- 1098-T from summer school: $400 (box 1) and 0 (box 5)
- 1098-T from his full-time school: $9500 (box 1) and $7575 (box 5). Box 1 should have been $11700, however, I made a mistake of making a payment in December 2023 for the Spring 2024 semester.
- Earned income from part time jobs: $12000
- $2000 scholarship from a private firm not in box 5 (It's stated as scholarship on its website)
Q1: Can the payment I made in December 2023 for spring semester 2024 be added to the total of box 1 from both 1098-T to raise the qualified expenses in 2024?
Q2: What kind of scholarship can be considered a hybrid between earned and unearned income? Out of the $7575 in box 5, $6000 was paid directly to the school from a non profit organization. Can some of this scholarship be treated as earned income to get the $14600 standard deduction?
