Taxes and Tuition?

take it as an itemized deduction. The standard deduction will not allow you to take that particular expense. tba.

Tuition and books for college are not tax deductible expenses. They are deductible only if the courses are required by your employer.

If you pay for tuition out of your pocket, then you should be able to take it off your taxes. The school sends you a form each year for tax purposes showing what your total cost for school was. However, if you paid tuition using pell grants, scholarship, or student loans then it would probably not do you any good to file it on your taxes. I am saying this through personal experience. My husband and I both attend college but we used pell grants and student loans to pay. We thought we could deduct what we paid out of our student loans, but a tax agent told us it really wouldn't do anything for us. However, if we had paid for the tuition through our earnings, we would have gotten a bigger refund. I would assume you are using pell grants, and if not, I would suggest applying to see if you qualify. I would contact the irs to find out what your options are.

You do not get the entire amount of tuition back (except possibly by coincidence). You get a refund of your credits plus the amount of income tax withheld minus your tax. If no one else can claim you as a dependent, the tax on an income of $11,000 is fairly low, so your refund (without any credits) would be almost (within a thousand dollars or so) the amount withheld. If someone else can claim you as a dependent, whether or not they do so, your tax will be greater, and you may owe money. As a student, you may be able to claim the Hope Credit or the Lifetime Learning Credit. If you do, this will increase you refund by the amount of the credit. If the $11,000 is earned income, you may be able to claim the Earned Income Credit (EIC). If you do, this will increase you refund by the amount of the credit. If the $11,000 is unearned income, you cannot claim the EIC.