College expenses tax deduction in 2016 tax return?

You can only claim one education tax credit per year per child.

AOTC can be taken for four years, it allows books to be qualified expenses as well. The first $2,000 of QEE result in $2,000 of AOTC (if you have tax liability, up to 40% max $1,000 can be refunded).

There are income limits for the AOTC as well.

If you have a 529 account, room and board are qualified expenses for tax free 529 distributions.

But no, you cannot get $2,000 AOTC and then try to claim tuition and fees deduction on the same tuition expenses for the same year/child.

The max AOTC is $2,500. So you are pretty close with $2,000. If you haven’t included books, you can claim them in addition to tuition/fees listed on 1098T.