My husband bought a laptop for a certificate program since it is all online. Where do add the cost of the laptop?

If it is a certificate program, he qualifies for the Lifelong Learning Credit.  Unfortunately, for this credit, only tuition and fees required for enrollment or attendance are qualified educational expenses that can be used toward the credit.

If he can qualify for the American Opportunity Credit, he may be able to use the computer expense.

In the Deduction part, there is an item called Job-Related deduction. You can add your job related item there with a full value deduction for the year. Hope this helps.

Q. My husband bought a laptop for a certificate program since it is all online. Where do add the cost of the laptop?

A. You don't. That is not a qualified expense because he was not officially enrolled in the certificate program in 2022 when the expenditure was made.

A certificate program, at an eligible institution, is eligible for the more generous American Opportunity Credit (assuming the student doesn't already have a bachelors degree). And a required computer is a qualified expense.  

 To be eligible for the tuition credits, the course must be taken at "an eligible institution". The school should be able to tell you if it is an eligible educational institution. In general, an eligible educational institution is an accredited college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary educational institution, including accredited, public, nonprofit, and proprietary (privately-owned, profit-making) postsecondary institutions. Additionally, in order to be an eligible educational institution, the school must be eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the Department of Education. If they issue a 1098-T they are probably an eligible institution.

Enter your school at the link below, to see if it's on the dept. of education list.

https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home

Schools that only offer online courses usually do not qualify.  Online classes taken at schools that also have  classroom instruction usually do count.