The biggest thing to know if you file an amended return is that you won’t be able to use the DRT on the FAFSA next year.
Good to know. Thank you!
I’ve been working on D16 taxes. Here is my question, her 1098t shows 8,818 for payments received for tuition, etc. But when look at her account and see how much she was charged for tuition it is 11,900. She has a full ride scholarship and I know we have to pay taxes on amounts not used on tuition, but I don’t understand why they aren’t showing full amount she “paid” for tuition? I’m also not clear on how it works when tuition for spring semester is “paid” for in Dec. Do we include that in 2016 or 2017 taxes?
Our box 1 is empty (amount we paid to school directly) and my D got full tuition covered by gift aid. The full tuition and QEE qualified fees should be in Box 2 I think.
Are the numbers you are citing strictly for tuition only, or do they represent the amounts charged and/or paid for a combination of things – tuition, room, board, fees, etc.?
For the purposes of figuring the amount of tax owed and eligibility for education tax credits, you only use the income amounts that were actually received in and expenses that were paid out during the tax year. An amount that was paid in December 2016 for spring semester 2017 expenses would be used in figuring 2016 taxes.
Yes those numbers are just for tuition. I’m going off the schools forms for tuition And fees paid for each semester and not including any housing or food.
That’s what I thought about which year things get filed in which actually makes their number way off from what I figure too.
When we amended our sons taxes to show the additional grant/scholarship money as income so we could then take the American Opportunity Credit on our return but then Turbo Tax gave him the credit!? Is he allowed to take the credit if he is still claimed as our dependent? I thought he could not and that we had to claim it.
No.
The credit should be claimed on your return, not your son’s.
Make sure you marked that he is being claimed as a dependent by someone else.
The only things that should change for him, is total income, taxable scholarship income, and kiddie tax should be higher.
Turbo Tax was doing that last year for my daughter too, trying to give her the (partial) tax credit. I couldn’t find the error so just switched to TaxAct.
@momofcskid Note that you need to change your kid’s tax return(s) too.
@momofcskid There should be two questions:
Can someone else claim you as a dependent, and is that person claiming you as a dependent?
Answer to both should be yes.
There was a question about parents being alive too I think.
Go through the whole education interview again.
I got the answers. Turbo Tax should NOT have given him the credit. But of course you can’t talk to anyone there. I got it all figured out by hand. A huge thank you to all who help on this forum!!! I was not able to find any answers until I came here. Thank you again!
@momofcskid Hope it’s all straightened out now. Did he have to pay a lot more in taxes for the extra $4,000 in taxable scholarships?
It should be worth it, if you as parents can get a $2,500 AOTC.
Update: wanted to thank everyone for their help here. We have put taxes on hold for the moment because our basement flooded and we are dealing with a mess and a difficult insurance company. I hope you guys will help a little more when I get back to this in two weeks. Thanks again 
Your 1098-T can be wrong. Ours was. My daughters listed tuition as one amount (spring and fall) and I think what the school did was just put that amount on every 1098, like a default. My daughter took a May term class, which wasn’t included on the 1098-T but was on the bill. I got an itemized copy the bill for 2017, which listed all the tuition charges and all the free money, and used those numbers to figure out what I could claim in AOTC, what amounts would be taxable, and what was a qualified 529 withdrawal. I handed that spreadsheet, the itemized bill, and the 1098-T to my CPA. When I did my daughter’s taxes (used HR Block free edition), I simply entered the amount of the taxable scholarship. It was under 2100, so no kiddie tax.