Working on the Education Expense section of my 2016 taxes and am stuck on determining the amount actually paid for tuition. The amount I actually paid was net of scholarships and aid provided by the school. The worksheet appears to subtract scholarships/aid from this amount to arrive at a total qualified education expense (which I assume is used to determine eligibility for tax credits).
The issue is that that total is considerably less than my actual expense. Should I instead use the actual pre-scholarship/aid amount?? Doing so results in my actual out-of-pocket cost for the year.
Thank you.