Question

American Opportunity Credit

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
January 28, 2020
1 reply
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I thought I had claimed the American Opportunity Credit for 4 years on my last year's return(2018). When prompted last year I selected Yes to claiming it for 4 years and it shows this box checked on my form 8863. However, while preparing this years taxes I noticed that I actually only claimed the credit for 3 previous tax years. Can I claim it this year (2019) making it my fourth year to claim? Or will this send up a red flag to the IRS since I stated I already claimed it for 4 years on last years return?

M

MinhT1

Please note that the American Opportunity tax credit is only available for full time students who

have not finished the first four years of higher education at the beginning of the tax year and who have not claimed the AOTC or the former Hope credit for more than four tax years.

If you are sure that you satisfy these two criteria, then you can claim the AOTC in 2019 although you have said on your 2018 tax return that you have already claimed it 4 times. It may raise a red flag with the IRS but if you can prove that you did not claim the credit more than 4 times, you will be OK.

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