topic School tuition can both parent and child take this deduction? in Education

School tuition can both parent and child take this deduction?

tkck515 — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:13:03 GMT

No. Only the taxpayer that is claiming the student's exem...

Phillip1 — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:13:04 GMT

No. Only the taxpayer that is claiming the student's exemption can claim the tuition for a tax credit or the tuition deduction.

See the following from IRS Publication 970:

Who Can Claim the Credit?

Generally, you can claim the American opportunity credit (or the other education tax benefits) if all three of the following requirements are met.

You pay qualified education expenses of higher education.

You pay the education expenses for an eligible student.

The eligible student is either yourself, your spouse, or a dependent for whom you claim an exemption on your tax return.

Note.

Qualified education expenses paid by a dependent for whom you claim an exemption, or by a third party for that dependent, are considered paid by you.

Re: No. Only the taxpayer that is claiming the student's exem...

Ray_ — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 15:54:14 GMT

I am the parent of a college student. I e-filed both my joint return and my daughter's return at the same time.

Her federal return was accepted and mine rejected. The error received from TurboTax was that both used the same education credit involving form 8863 for each filing.

How do I update my joint return to correct this. It looks like she will get the credit (and I won't but) but I don't know the best way to delete / correct my return and hopefully e-file it again.

Help, please.

Re: No. Only the taxpayer that is claiming the student's exem...

Hal_Al — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 16:11:45 GMT

@Ray_

Apparently the IRS got her's first, which makes the problem worse.

You can no longer e-file. You will have to mail in your tax return. You WILL claim the tuition credit, because she is (I assume) your dependent. If she is not your dependent, you need to explain why not*.

In the mean time, she needs to file an amended return, unclaiming the tuition credit and checking the box that says she can be claimed as a dependent. She should not amend until her original return is fully processed. But you do not need to wait for that to happen; you can mail your return now.

* It's highly unusual for a college student not to be the parent's dependent. Even when not the dependent, the student is still (usually) not allowed to claim the tuition credit. There's a new urban myth among college students that says they can get a $1000 from the government just for filing a tax form. For most of them, they simply aren't eligible. It is usually best if the parent claims that credit.