American Opportunity Credit Eligibility Question

Mar 03, 2011 2 Replies
J

I wonder if someone can help me with this.



I am doing the taxes for my daughter in law, who is attending night school 3 nights a week with the goal of obtaining a Certificate in Culinary Arts. Her goal is to change careers and improve her income. She will be taking a full course of studies over a period of 1 1/2 years and will graduate with a Certificate. The question is whether she will be eligible for the "American Opportunity Credit" treatment on her taxes, and not whether there is some other tax treatment that will bring back some of the paid tuition.



I ran things through TurboTax and it appeared to feel that she WAS eligible, but I want to be certain before we move forward with claiming that.



Your help is much appreciated



John Baker


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J

I trust she and your son don't make more than $180K? (If they do, good for them. But no credit)

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This is a great Q&A from my friends at IRS dot gov. It's pretty comprehensive. Joe

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R

The AOC is only available for the first 4 years of post-secondary education, usually the undergraduate degree (but I suppose you could skip undergrad and go straight to grad school or some specialized school and still take the AOC). If she already did her under-graduate degree then she has to take the lifetime credit.

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It is 20% of the first $10,000 in expenses, or $2,000 max, and phased out between 100k and 120k for married filers. If you claim an exemption for your son and daughter-in-law then you can take the credit on your tax return.

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