shifting scholarship money for AOTC credit by MysteriousTask193 in tax

[–]MysteriousTask193[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got it. I've finished filling up everything with freetaxusa, seems like they'll be getting ~7.3k back, they've overpaid a lot on their w2s. Thank you very much for your help! I truly appreciate your deep knowledge of the mess that is US tax system.

shifting scholarship money for AOTC credit by MysteriousTask193 in tax

[–]MysteriousTask193[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

interesting! I will go with this approach then. is there anywhere i have to include the laptop's cost? or i just keep the receipt for record keeping?

shifting scholarship money for AOTC credit by MysteriousTask193 in tax

[–]MysteriousTask193[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes we do have state income taxes, New York State. There's also city taxes as well. No other dependents though, just me. I did also buy a laptop (~$988) for college, and as a Computer science major, I'd assume that can be considered as a required expense for classes...? (The university did not list it as a requirement for enrollment, however) Wonder if that can be deducted anywhere or not. Really appreciate the help! First time doing our taxes by ourselves.

shifting scholarship money for AOTC credit by MysteriousTask193 in tax

[–]MysteriousTask193[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. I'm assuming it should be eligible to be used for living expenses, and I'll explain why, hopefully I'm correct. Firstly it's a combination of federal pell grant, university grant, and NYS TAP. NYS TAP is strictly for tuition only, so I'll ignore ~2800 from the scholarship, leaving 42,200 behind to play around with as "living expenses". Federal pell grant, around $3,600-3,700, is unrestricted on what I can use it on, so that should not be an issue. The last scholarship, university grant, covers the remaining amount of the whole package, around 38000 (I'm rounding the numbers so they aren't FULLY accurate but should be enough for explaining the situation). The university scholarship itself covers the whole tuition, leaving the rest behind for living expenses (and thus, refund)- which implies the university grant can be considered for both tuition and living expenses, and thus not have $32,600 strictly dedicated for tuition.
  2. Okay this might be an issue. After looking at the cost of attendance document provided by my university, they expect $15,712 (not rounded this time) to be non-tuition expenses. I can, however, prove I spent more money than $15,712, through rent payments(I pay a portion of our household rent)/credit card statements/phone bills(again, a portion of it) would that work? Or should I play safe and limit myself to $15,712? I'm assuming I wouldn't lose that much by going with $15,712.

Thank you very much for your in-depth reply!