High school student taking college class -- is there a tax credit?

Parents Forum
1

<p>If we paid tuition for our son, 16, to take a college class, do we qualify for the Lifetime Learning Credit?</p>

<p>As I read the IRS publication, he doesn't qualify for the American Opportunity Credit because he's not enrolled in college at least half-time. I'm not finding a description of "qualifying student" for Lifetime Learning Credit ... does anyone know?</p>

<p>He got 3 hours of college credit to be used in the state university system (if he attends a state school here). The tuition was $900 or so.</p>

<p>Any advice welcome. Thank you!</p>

2

<p>Did you receive a form 1098-t?</p>

3

<p>No. No 1098-T.</p>

4

<p>I “think” that you have to have completed high school to take those tax credits. I am not a CPA so I could be wrong. Here the college level classes are free for high school kids so I haven’t had to worry about it on our personal taxes but I THINK that completing high school was one of the qualifiers on the form.</p>

5

<p>My son took physics at our CC his senior yr (2010-2011) and we received the 1098-T a few weeks ago. We didn’t get one last year.</p>

6

<p>We got one too, but I didn’t think we were eligible. I think I should do some research…</p>

7

<p>I did a fair amount of research on this when our kids took concurrent enrollment classes, and decided that, yes, tuition for those courses was eligible for the Lifetime Learning Credit (they only took 1 or 2 courses at a time, and were therefore enrolled less than half-time at the college - rest of the day was hs classes - and so not eligible for the AOC in the calendar years that did not include the first half of their freshman years in college.)</p>

<p>An answer to an FAQ on the IRS website says this:

<a href=“http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq/0,,id=199794,00.html[/url]”>http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq/0,,id=199794,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>(in re-researching this just now, found a few websites where tax preparers where discussing the issue. Their responses were all over the map on this, confirming my impression that many, if not most, tax preparers don’t know JACK about issues concerning higher education tax issues, financial aid, etc. It also seems like a lot of the tax preparation software is also close to useless in this department. Bottom line, educate yourself – read Pub. 970 closely, especially the helpful examples given therein, and the instructions for Form 8863, also IRS FAQs such as on the page I linked.)</p>

<p>IMHO, the IRS answer seems pretty definitive that a hs student is eligible, provided of course that the other requirements are met.</p>

8

<p>Thank you, MomCat2. I’m with you on the importance of educating yourself on the tax code. I’ll take another look, but I think we do qualify for an education credit for the tuition we paid for our son to take a college class.</p>

9

<p>Yes. I received 1098-T for my kid.</p>