<p>I am going around in circles trying to decide the best way to go between EE interest exclusion, tuition and fees deduction, or American Opportunity credit.</p>
<p>The main issue is how to fill out forms 8815, on the EE interest, or form 8863, for the AO credit.</p>
<p>We paid $10K+ to one college, and $16K+ to another. Neither school specifies, in bills, that the scholarships go to tuition and fees only, and room and board are also on the bill. Is it okay to consider that some of the scholarships ($44,500) at school #1 go toward room and board, so that the 10K we paid to that first college would be considered for tuition and fees? The 1098T is totally wrong for this school (partly due to a leave of absence last spring) so I am not paying any attention to it.</p>
<p>For the second school, again, the bill also does not say that scholarship is for tuition and fees only, but the 1098T is actually accurate in that it shows a difference between qualified ed. expenses and scholarship as being around $5K, if the scholarship is in fact considered to be only for tuition and fees. If you follow me. </p>
<p>If I went by the intent of the 1098T's, I think that the honest thing to do would be to not go after any AP credit, and possibly no exclusion for the EE interest.</p>
<p>However, I paid a visit to the IRS and the guy there said to go ahead and consider that the scholarships can be applied to room and board as well, leaving the $10K and $16K that we paid, applciable on the forms for credits. He said to include payment receipts or cancelled checks.</p>
<p>I don't know whether to do this or not. If I do do it, how do I figure out what numbers to use for qualified expenses and scholarships on form 8863? Do I subtract room and board from the scholarships? Ditto with the EE interest exclusion form 8815?</p>
<p>I can always do the tuition and fees deduction and just forget about the AO credit and EE exclusion. It might be worth my sanity!</p>
<p>p.s. we paid all bills in 2011 including bills for spring 2012, so I am including those amounts in tax calculations for 2011</p>