Of course, a few weeks after I file my taxes, I get form 1098-T from the school I attended in 1007. It has a decent amount of “Amounts billed for qualified tuition and related expenses” in Box 2. I didn’t think I had any thing to claim like this on my income tax, since it was payed for by loans. But I guess I was wrong, so I need to re-file.
First off, how do I do that? I assume there’s a form to fill out and mail in? Will I need another copy of my W-2 from my employer?
Secondly, what do I apply this as? Is it a Lifetime Learning Credit, a regular deduction, or something else? Even if it’s just a regular deduction, it’s already larger than the “standard deduction” I took, so it would be a net benefit to me.
You have to file a 1040X. The real pain is that it has to be mailed, you cannot efile it the last I checked. I had to do this two years ago. It is realativly painless
You need to fill out the 1040X plus any changed or new forms you need. IIRC you don’t have to refile the entire package.
You need to read IRS Publication 970 which will tell you all about handling tuition. You should see if you qualify for a credit first, since that will give you your biggest tax reduction. You can read up on the Hope Scholarship, which is a misnomer for a tax credit for tuition during the first two years of post-secondary education. There is also the Lifetime Learning you mentioned. Under certain conditions you might be able to deduct tuition on Schedule A. If you don’t quality for any of that, there is a deduction you can take for tuition even if you don’t itemize.
This site gives a pretty good rundown, with links to IRS pubs: