Aside from the amount of grants and scholarships left over after my tuition and fees are paid for from both semesters this year, I’ve also worked and made a little over 1k.
I’m wanting to file a tax return so that I can claim the largest refund I can from both AOTC AND EITC.
For AOTC, I have to spend my income on school expenses.
For EITC, I have to have over $6,580 but below $8,240 in income.
I’m still not sure of what the maximum refund would be for me for AOTC.
The maximum for EITC would be $503, so long as I’ve made those amounts in 2015.
The only way I can do that is to count my grants and scholarships as taxable income.
Taxable scholarships/grants are earned income for the purposes of filing requirements and the standard deduction. They are NOT earned income for the purpose of the EIC. The kind of taxable scholarships/grants you have will not be reported on a W-2.
I think according to the EIC table you would get less than $100 for $1k income from work (earned income).
To get AOTC you need to include enough of Pell in taxable scholarship amount to give you expenses enough for claiming AOTC to get the $1 k refundable amount of AOTC. I don’t think you will have taxable income because you have about $10k in deductions if nobody can claim you as a dependent.