Amending prior year to get education tax credit for a college student

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
April 23, 2025
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If I amend for prior year 2022, can I change dependent status for my college age child (i.e. remove him as dependent from my return)? Then we would like to amend his return for 2022 and since he is no longer claimed as dependent, he should get a bigger refund because he would get the full amount of American Opportunity Tax credit on his amended return. If we do this, is order important, i.e. first file amended parent return, and then file amended student return? Should there be any wait time in between these filings? Also, does this seem to be too drastic of an amendment?

Ask the Experts - Amend - April 2025

AnnetteB6

Yes, the order is important. The parents' return must be amended first to remove the student as a dependent. Then the student's return can be amended.

If you wish, you could prepare both amended returns and send them by mail to the IRS in the same package. That way, they should both be processed about the same time. Otherwise, you should allow 16 weeks or longer for the IRS to process the first amended return before submitting the second one.

It is difficult to say whether this is a drastic amendment to make. As long as you are within the boundaries of the tax law and the time limit to file an amended return, you should be fine.

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