<p>If your daughter was part or full time at a college or university and is pursuing a degree and the expenses you paid were for tuition, fees, books supplies or equipment you probably are allowed to deduct the expenses or at least not have to consider the scholarship income that went toward tuition and qualified expenses as income. The college only reports amount that went through them. The foreign school is unlikely to issue you any documentation. Make sure you have a copy of the bill and a copy of the check. I can't give an absolute answer without all the detail, but you should be able to deduct the difference between total tuition and fees less scholarship amount even though your regular university did not act as a passthrough.</p>
<p>The amount paid for books, supplies and equipment cannot be counted as qualified tuition.</p>
<p>If the funds used to pay the tuition came from a UTMA in the kids name, then the kid gets the deduction, right?</p>
<p>I am new to this as my oldest is a senior. So I went to IRS.GOV and found no less than three helpful -- and free -- publications on this topic (as well as many of the related but tangential topics which are the topic of subsequent questions by those participating in this site):</p>
<pre><code>* Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education
* Tax Topic 513, Educational Expenses
* Form 8863 (PDF), Education Credits (Hope and Lifetime Learning Credits)
</code></pre>
<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>
<p>I am so confused. Can I assume you should file for the Hope if you have 2 kids that will attend college? My first is in his sophomore year.</p>
<p>akdaddy, understood re: kid and deduction. My CPA is going to "run" it both ways for us and see which is better. Our tax situation is too complicated to trust the software and I to make those decisions...</p>
<p>ebay.....</p>
<p>Depends on net expense. Lifetime learning credit is max $2,000 credit/tax return based on 20% of eligible expenses no matter how many student dependents on the return. Max Hope is $1650/student no limit of dependent deductions per return. Hope is only for FR. & Soph. status years. Likely scenario for high tuition paying, 2 child family is one Hope one Lifetime learning to max the credit. Again not simple, make sure to try all the combinations before finishing your return. Suggest paid preparer if not sure.</p>
<p>Do I understand this correctly? DD is a full time student. We, as parents, can take a lifetime learning credit deduction of up to $2000? Are we able to deduct room and board as well or any portion thereof?</p>
<p>No expenses that would be incurred regardless of if the dependent was a student or not ( personal expenses- medical insurance- rent- food- transportation, etc) are not deductible</p>
<p>dumb question-- the scholarship portion that is taxable-- is that taxable to the student or parent?</p>
<p>To the student.</p>
<p>What's the CC consensus regarding deductibility of college search expenses? </p>
<p>Specifically, the easily documented fees for apps, Profiles, ACT reports, etc.</p>
<p>btw...Anyone notice a thread last year where a tax preparer was quoted as saying that travel expenses for college visits could be deducted? </p>
<p>Review of the IRS literature doesn't reveal anything specific and clear.</p>
<p>I don't have much time to search on CC so if this has been discussed in depth before, I apologize for my laziness.</p>
<p>Those expenses are not deductible. Pretty clear in IRS regs -- I don't think its a subject for debate. Only "qualified" educational expenses can be deducted.</p>
<p>The only way I can imagine that application fees, profiles, act reports and travel expenses could conceivably (and it would be a stretch) deducted would be if the education was required as a stipulation of employment and the taxpayer was deducting them as miscellaneous itemized deductions on schedule A. But none of those things would qualify for either the tuition deduction nor either Hope nor Lifetime learning credit.</p>
<p>Yes, I see now from Pub 970 that there is a more fundamental condition that disqualifies this. In order to receive the Tuition and Fees deduction, the student must be a HS graduate or have received a GED equivalent!</p>
<p>I had initially been hopeful that the app fees, cost of Profile, etc. (not travel exp - that was a bit much) and "other costs of enrollment" would qualify because my HS senior daughter had received a 1098-T from the local university where she has been enrolled in a calculus class.</p>
<p>Too bad. I'm sure many of the parents here on CC with high-achievers taking college level classes could use the deduction!</p>
<p>We know we owe so we are still in the process of filing. I don't know how this old thread caught my eye but it did. My H & I are very happy to knock off another $4000 off the AGI. :)</p>
<p>Thank you digmedia for being the original poster on this. </p>
<p>From a fellow Tartan</p>