If you paid tuition and fees for higher education, you may qualify to deduct up to $2,000 or $4,000 (depending on your income) on your return. You can take the deduction for qualified education expenses you paid for yourself, your spouse, or a dependent. You do not have to itemize to take this deduction.

You cannot take the tuition and fees deduction for expenses you or anyone else use to claim an American opportunity credit or lifetime learning credit in the same tax year. A state tax credit, however, will not disqualify you from claiming the federal tuition and fees deduction.

Qualified education expenses are amounts paid for tuition and fees required for the student’s enrollment or attendance at an eligible educational institution. Required fees include amounts for books, supplies, and equipment if they must be paid to the institution as a condition of enrollment or attendance. These expenses qualify regardless of how the expenses were paid (cash, check, loans, etc.). Room and board are not qualified education expenses.

You cannot claim the tuition and fees deduction if:

• Your filing status is married filing separately.
• Another person can claim an exemption for you as a dependent on his or her tax return, even if the other person does not actually claim that exemption.
• Your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is more than $80,000 ($160,000 if filing a joint return).
• You were a nonresident alien for any part of the year and did not elect to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes.

For additional information see the IRS Instructions for Form 8917.

TaxACT will determine which education benefit is most advantageous for you based on the data entered on your return (such as income, filing status, amount of qualified expenses, etc). To enter your education information:

1. From within your TaxACT return (Online or Desktop) click on the Federal Q&A tab
2. Click Education to expand the section, then click All education topics. If you would like to skip to a specific education topic, select the appropriate link from the list.
3. The program will proceed with the interview questions for you to enter your education information.

The amount of the education tax benefit that is most advantageous for your situation will appear on the screen titled Higher Education – Summary. To go directly to this screen, click on Education credit/deduction summary in step 2 above.