Discussion:Tuition confusion

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Discussion Forum Index --> Tax Questions --> Tuition confusion

Naejhcok (talk\|edits) said:	6 February 2007
for the education credits i am asking the parents (who are claiming a dependent child) if they paid the tuition. the answer is their child took out the loans in his name and social security number but they are co-signers to the loans. the loans are all deferred until after graduation so no payment has been made. would the parents qualify for the education credits?

Solomon (talk\|edits) said:	6 February 2007
Yes - assuming loans were used to pay tuition. Publication 970.

CATAXES (talk\|edits) said:	6 February 2007
It does not matter who actually pays the tuition. The credit is available to the person who claims the student as an exemption.

Wkstaxprep (talk\|edits) said:	6 February 2007
interesting point to this topic is: if the parents are very wealthy and do not benefit from the credits, they are allowed to "forego" the dependent exemption on their return and the student is allowed to claim the credit on his/her return (assuming they have some income and are filing a return) however, the student is still not allowed an exemption for themself on their own return.

Pegoo (talk\|edits) said:	6 February 2007
If the parents are wealthy, that excemption for the dependant is not material. The student should be claiming independent, claiming his own exemption, and tuition credit / deduction. Well, it all depends how you define the term "wealthy".

Solomon (talk\|edits) said:	6 February 2007
If the student is a QC of the parents, then he can not claim himself even if the parents do not claim him.

Death&Taxes (talk\|edits) said:	6 February 2007
Right on target, Solomon!

Phoenix2099 (talk|edits) said:

9 April 2007

A student's point of view for this topic:

I am claimed as a dependent in my mother's taxes, this being the last year. For my first two years of schooling, she made payments for tuition. For the previous two years (05-06, 06-07), I have taken out loans in my name.

Due to this, I have had the desire to start repaying these loans in my name early, so that interest that is incurred after graduation is on a lower amount. I paid $2000 towards a loan amount in September of 2006.

When manually doing taxes using form 1040-ez, I had zero taxable income due to this payment, but when using TurboTax, I owe Federal taxes.

Any feedback? Brian