My birthdate is entered correctly. This is a mistake on TurboTax’s part. I need to pay back the money and there is no section of 1040x that allows me to do that. It focuses on income but does not allow for a correction to refundable credits.

RobertB4444

You need to change the optimizer which is making the program select the best possible deduction for your education credits.

To do this go to the search field in your return and search for letme (all one word, no spaces). This will take you to the section where you can adjust the tax credit yourself.

The steps are detailed in this article from TurboTax.

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Hal_Al

Employee

Why do you think you do not qualify for the AOTC? Being under 24 does not automatically disqualify you. What disqualifies you is being full time, unmarried student, under age 24, who did not provide more than half his/her own support with earned income.

Here's more bad news: this is, most likely, NOT TurboTax's mistake. After it detects your age and FT student status, it asks you the support question. You, most likely, answered that wrong. The most common mistake is you read it as "did you provide more than half your own support" rather than "did you provide more than half your own support with earned income".

That brings up another issue: If you did not meet the support test, why are you not your parent's dependent? It is usually best if the parent claims that credit.

mnhemenwayAuthor

Being under 24 does disqualify me from receiving any refund due to the AOTC. I still qualify for non-refundable tax credits, but TurboTax did give me the refund. It did not detect my age correctly. I was not a dependent and answered questions correctly. I supplied my income myself. That is not the problem. The form 8863 for 2020 reads on line 7 “Caution: If you were under age 24 at the end of the year and meet the conditions described in the instructions, you can’t take the refundable American opportunity credit; skip line 8, enter the amount from line 7 on line 9, and check this box.” I met all of the required qualifications except age. I was under the age of 24, yet TurboTax still included the refundable American opportunity credit.

Hal_Al

Employee

@mnhemenway said "I supplied my income myself"

What was the source of that income? If more than half was earned income (wages or self employment) you qualify for the refundable portion of the AOTC.

@mnhemenway Said "Being under 24 does disqualify me from receiving any refund due to the AOTC".

No. Being under 24 AND meeting the conditions described in the instructions disqualifies you. Being under 24, alone, does not disqualify you. Those conditions are:

1. He was:
.....a. Under age 18 at the end of 2020, or
......b. Age 18 at the end of 2020 and his earned income was less than one-half of his support, or
......c. A full-time student over age 18 and under age 24 at the end of 2020 and his earned income was less than one-half of his support .
2. At least one of his parents was alive at the end of 2020.
3. He is not filing a joint return with his spouse for 2020.