<p>Books, supplies and equipment required for classes paid to the institution are in fact valid expenses. Books, supplies and equipment paid to non institution vendors are not valid deductions for Lifetime learning or Hope credit but are valid expenses for income exclusion of fellowships/scholarships. Tax code is complex, and usually a brief answer is incomplete. Run of the mill tax prep programs cannot deal with the complexity of the tax code. The IRS website while a useful tool will drive many crazy since the search feature is very cumbersome. My advice is if you have any complex questions it is worth seeing a tax professional. I will refrain from any more tax advice as I now realize this space and my available time do not allow for complete answers. </p>
<p>Breaking my own rule... The kid cannot get the deduction if they are a dependent on the parents return. For most people filing on ones own and losing the dependent deduction on the parents return is a losing situation. But again this to is complex and variable based on situation and I advise at least running multiple scenarios through the software to decide what is best.</p>