Why did I not qualify for Lifelong Learner Credit? I paid $7483.45 in tuition for grad school, and I have previous Bachelors degree.

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 25, 2025
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Bsch4477

Employee

Are you a dependent?

liza-witmerAuthor

No, I am not. According to the IRS interactive tool, I am eligible for the credit, and I did receive the credit in 2022.

Hal_Al

Employee

The Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC) is non-refundable. That is, you can only use it to reduce an actual tax liability. If you are eligible, you have answered something wrong, in the interview. But, a lot of people are just not eligible. See:

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/llc

Dependents are not eligible. But, if you are a dependent, the person claiming you can claim the LLC on their return, even if you paid the tuition.

liza-witmerAuthor

Thank you for your help! I am not a dependent, nor do I have dependents. According the IRS interactive tool, I am eligible. When I stepped through my filing on TurboTax, Form 8863 was not automatically included, which is odd.

I think the answer is that I do not owe anything, I seem to only have a refund, and so I do not have any liability to reduce. The thing that is confusing to me is that in 2022, I did receive the LLC, and I wouldn't have owed anything that year either. I utilized TurboTax both years.

Hal_Al

Employee

Q. "The thing that is confusing to me is that in 2022, I did receive the LLC, and I wouldn't have owed anything that year either".

You may have had a tax liability before the LLC was applied. And the LLC, you received, was more than enough to reduced your tax liability to zero.

You may have mistakenly claimed the American Opportunity Credit (AOC) in 2022.

If 2022 was the year you received your bachelor's degree, any graduate tuition, later in the year, would have qualified for the AOC (because you had not finished 4 years of post secondary education before 2022).