High School College classes

[JenMO]

Do they qualify for life time learning credit? Parents pay tuition for kid to take an extra credit college class while he is still attending high school, like college algebra or english. Qualify? Parents received a receipt that says tuition from the college.

[Koss]

Lifetime Learing Credit

The short answer is yes.

Any tuition paid to college or university qualifies for the Lifetime Learning Credit.

The fact pattern you describe does not qualify for the Hope Credit, because the student in question is not enrolled in a degree program.

And it does not qualify for the tuition and fees deduction, because for that adjustment, the student in question must have a high school diploma or GED equivalency certificate.

Burton

[gkaiseril]

Must be for Degree or Improve Job Skills

From IRS Pub 970;

"Qualified Education Expenses
For purposes of the lifetime learning credit, qualified education expenses are tuition and certain related expenses required for enrollment in a course at an eligible educational institution. The course must be either part of a postsecondary degree program or taken by the student to acquire or improve job skills."


See also page 12-1 TTB

[Koss]

From IRS Pub 970;

"Qualified Education Expenses
For purposes of the lifetime learning credit, qualified education expenses are tuition and certain related expenses required for enrollment in a course at an eligible educational institution. The course must be either part of a postsecondary degree program OR taken by the student to acquire or improve job skills."


See also page 12-1 TTB

Almost any course taken at an accredited college or university can be reasonably construed as a course that the student is taking to acquire job skills.

In Pub. 970, on page 18, Table 3-1 explicitly states that

Student does not need to be pursuing a degree or other recognized education credential

Burton

[Snaggletooth]

Deduction vs. Credit

I believe the citations above may be confusing "deductible" education expenses and education qualifying for "credits."

GKaiser speaks of a very restrictive set of qualifiers to allow a deduction for education as a Sch A itemized deduction subject to the 2% floor. The conditions are so restrictive that an auditor can almost always find a reason to disallow it.

The Koss reflection on the Lifetime Learning Credit is NOT the same as an itemized deduction, but rather a tax credit. And as far as restrictions, it's almost like the old Cole Porter classic: "Anything Goes."

[Davc]

Umm Snag. Tuition & Fees deduction on line 34 of Form 1040?

[gkaiseril]

GKaiser speaks of a very restrictive set of qualifiers to allow a deduction for education as a Sch A itemized deduction subject to the 2% floor. The conditions are so restrictive that an auditor can almost always find a reason to disallow it.

To be very clear, I was referring to the Lifetime Learning credit.

From http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.... 19 of Pub 970,

"Qualified Education Expenses

For purposes of the lifetime learning credit, qualified education expenses are tuition and certain related expenses required for enrollment in a course at an eligible educational institution. The course must be either part of a postsecondary degree program or taken by the student to acquire or improve job skills."

So unless the high school dependent has established an occupation, I doubt that the Lifetime Learning credit would be available under exmination.

[erchess]

The whole idea of a liberal education

is to teach someone to think and to learn. These are skills that would be necessary in about any career requiring more than a high school education. I also wonder what an auditor would say if the kid, who by the time of the audit would be 19 or 20, asserted that he or she intended to be a professional student.

[veritas]

Which schools are

teaching a "liberal" education?

My take is most are basically trying to produce "workers".