Questions about the best way to handle education credit and American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC)

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
March 10, 2026
1 reply
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Our daughter earned only $900 (W-2) in 2025, and we are using TurboTax Desktop to prepare her return. If my husband and I do not claim her as a dependent, will she be unable to claim or get tax benefit from Education Credits or receive the $1000 refundable portion of the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC), because she has not tax liability?

Given this situation, would it be better for us to claim her as a dependent in obtain to a greater tax benefit than she would receive by filing her own return? P.S. Income of my husband and I were high and we are not eligible to claim her education credits.

Bsch4477

Level 15

You might as well claim her to get the other dependent credit if you qualify. You wrote that you can’t get the education credit because of your high income. Unfortunately she can’t get any education credit either. She has no tax liability to apply the non refundable credit toward and she can’t get the refundable credit either since she didn’t earn more than half of her support and has a living parent.