Am I understanding correctly about grants, taxes, and AOC?

<p>@mallory31 Thank you! I have actually been using $300 as an estimate (since we are a family that’s very good at finding the best deals and low-cost options) so it’s great to know I am in the correct ball park. My D had been thinking she’s totally humanities (art + psych) but recently has become extremely interested in bio… and there’s a prof at MHC she wants to take classes with, so I guess she may have some of those higher priced science books after all. We’ll see!</p>

<p>(I am going to PM you with some MHC questions, if that is OK, since they’re not really germaine to this thread.)</p>

<p>@staceyneil I would be happy to answer any questions. (I am a certified over-the-top MHC mom! Could not love it more.) But I can’t seem to send PMs (because I don’t have enough posts?)–so if you’d like to PM me an email address, I could answer that way.</p>

<p>@staceyneil I just went through this. Sounds like you are out in front of it. </p>

<p>I was ignorant of all the workings of grants/scholarships and taxes for my first child and did it wrong. I’ll go back and amend my taxes for previous years because I could claim the AOC for previous years but did not know it. I finally figured it out this past year when my second child also received grants/scholarships.</p>

<p>Yes, be aware that if the school bills you for Spring of 2015 in December of 2014 and you pay it then it can (must) be counted on your 2014 taxes. You would probably want to pay for books for 2015 Spring by the end of December, 2014 to keep all your expenses in the same tax year. If the school distributes the grant/scholarship for Spring 2015 in January of 2015 (and they billed you in 2014) you would count all of it on your 2014 taxes.</p>