I am claiming both of my college kids for 2013 and using turbo tax. My kids are paying their tuition and housing with scholarships and loans and we have paid books and fees. we did receive 1098-T forms for both kids but we paid none of those fees ourselves...they are through the kids' loans. Turbo tax asked me to enter the info from these forms and gave us 2500 credit for ea kid...I feel like I should not be allowed this credit as none of the tuition or housing was pd by us. should I back out all the 1098-T info and just claim the books or is Turbo tax correct in asking me for this info?

#1; Room and boarddo not qualif for aoc;. this credit provides up to $2.5k in tax credits on the first $4k of qualifying educational expenses; aoc is a tax credit of up to $2.5k of the cost of tuition, depending your magi amt.fees and course materials paid during the taxable year; 40% of the credit ,up to $1k, is refundable aslongas aoc>tax liability.but You cannot claim the tuition and fees tax deduction in the same taxable year that you claim the aoc tax credit. For each student you can choose only one of the credits for any one year. For example, if you choose to take the AOC credit for a child on your 2013 tax return then you cannot also claim the Lifetime Learning Credit for that same child for 2013. If you pay qualified education expenses for more than one student in the same year, you can choose to take the AOC and the LLC on a per-student, per-year basis. This means that, for example, you can claim the AOC for one student and the LLCfor another student in the same year.

#2;as they are your dependents then you still get it even if they paid the tuition; you should be able to claim it on your taxes since it was paid out of their loan money, paying it out of their pockets since they have to pay back those loans. However,ALSO, to deduct the interest on the student loans, the loans must be in your name. For example, even if you pay the interests on your children's loans, you would not be able to deduct it because the loans are not in your name. However, if you take out loans in your name to pay for your dependent children's education, you would be able to deduct the interest exp that you pay on the loans. Ifyou, as a parent, claim a student as a dependent but the student is legally obligated to pay the interest on the loan, then neither the student nor you , the parent, may deduct the student loan interest.You cannot deduct student loan interest if your filing status is married filing separately. For each student you can choose only one of the credits for any one year. For example, if you choose to take the American Opportunity Credit for a child on your 2013 tax return then you cannot also claim the Lifetime Learning Credit for that same child for 2013.


#3;as mentioned above;