FAFSA #91a - TAX question

Paying for College
1

<p>I used TAXACT and the box is checked BUT there is no value in line 31 of 1040a (which is taken from form 8863 , line 23). BUT, TAXACT put $1,000 in 1040a line43, Amer Opp credit. Last yr, I had a little over a 1000 in this bucket. Is this out of whack, I wonder?</p>

<p>this is why I am just doing an estimate for now - lack of confidence in the tools' results.</p>

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Parents' Education Credits
Question 91a </p>

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<p>Check the box if your parents received education credits (American Opportunity, Hope or Lifetime Learning tax credits) in 2010.

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2

<p>Line 31 is the nonrefundable part of the tax credit. Line 43 is the refundable part. FAFSA only wants to know about the non refundable part because that is what reduced your tax liability.</p>

<p>Usually I would expect to see numbers in both boxes as the AO credit is 60% nonrefundable and 40% refundable. However if you have no tax liability then there would be no number in the nonrefundable line (line 31).</p>