Can I write off my tuition on taxes?

One oft overlooked expense with education is mileage (which is typically a moot point for distance education). If you work and you are going to school after work, you can write off your mileage from work-to-school and school-to-home, I believe, as an non-reimbursed business expense. That has really help me out to the tune of $800 over the past two years. This lowers your adjusted gross income, which is good, and then you are usually better off to take your tuition, fees, and books as a credit (either the Hope or Lifetime). However, if you expenses are high, you may actually want to write off your books and fees as non-reimbursed business expenses too, if you have already maxed out your credit via tuition alone (which would take $5k in tuition for the year for the Lifetime Learning Credit).

Check EVERYTHING! And keep your receipts! Books, fees... even Internet access (especially for distance learning). Be sure to only use tuition, books, and fees in the Hope/Lifetime credit... but the rest is fair game for non-reimbursed business expenses... if they were not reimbursed.

 

I went ahead and went to H&R Block to do my taxes and they considered my vocational technical school for the Hope Credit and they accepted it. I just had to wait until Feburary 11 to submit my tax paperwork because of political backlog in Congress. It was $500 more on my income tax return.

 

You should get a 1098-T or 1098-E form, enter the form into the tax program where asked, putting the amounts from the boxes and you will be good to go. I used taxcut and it picks the best options for you based on every form you get and all the information you tell it, like I went to school, this year, full time, whole year, then it knows what you are able to get