So my son was in his 4th year of college 1/2019 but had not completed it yet.
4th academic year? Or 4th calendar year? The last semester of the 4th academic year is actually the 5th calendar year.
Remember, schools work in academic years. The IRS does not. So the reality is, it takes 5 calendar years to get that 4 year degree.
My AGI is not over 180K married filing jointly and we have only claimed the American Opportunity Credit for 2 years so far.
Maybe you have scholarship money not only for 2019, but excess scholarship money that carried over from 2018 that was sufficient to pay all qualified education expenses. So check that.
Therefore, I should be able to claim it, right? He is claimed as a dependent. He is 23. If I choose that he goes to school "full time" it won't let me claim it. If I change it to "half time" it does let me claim it.
The two most common reasons for this:
- The program will ask you if the ***STUDENT*** provided more than half of their own support for the entire tax year. Many folks don't interpret that correclty and think the program is asking if *THE PARENT* provided more than half of the student's support. So they incorrectly answer that question YES, when the correct answer is NO.
- The program will ask how many months the student lived with you during the tax year. Most people do not read the small print on that screen that informs them to count time spent away from home for the primary purpose of attending school, as time having lived with you. So if you did not select that the student lived with you "the whole year" that can disqualify you for the credit.
