Tuition Credits

[gman]

Taxpayers child cannot find reciepts for books. Would you take a deduction for these if they could not be verified.

thanks

[taxea]

Taxpayers child cannot find reciepts for books. Would you take a deduction for these if they could not be verified.

thanks

where were they purchased? A copy can be provided by the seller

[Koss]

Cost of Books

I would probably allow it, based on some sort of reasonable estimate or reconstruction of the cost.

All depends on how much money is really involved, and how much work you or the taxpayer want to expend.

College textbooks are quite expensive, and if the student carried a full load of courses for an entire year, it can very easily add up to hundreds of dollars. But the taxpayer shouldn't just pull a number out of thin air.

It's not mileage or charitable contributions. Those deductions have statutory recordkeeping requirements that you can't avoid. With textbooks, if the return is audited, and the records have been lost, you can use a reasonable estimate under the Cohan rule.

The transcript will identify the courses the student took. The course syllabi will identify the required books. Amazon, eBay, or data from the local college bookstore will give you the prices.

Do you need to do all that in order to prepare the return? I dunno.

Make the client do that work. You don't need transcripts or course syllabi. The student has that information. Just have the client bring you the results of their Amazon searches.

BMK

[LCP]

Surely the kid didn't pay cash.... isn't there a banking transaction that can be found? A check or more than likely a debit card. If they find it and say its for books that should do the trick.