American Opportunity credit even if scholarships paid for all school tuition

[giogis245]

If I enter form 1098 with tuition paid and scholarship received, american opportunity credit is being given.  Is this correct?  I thought it was for tuition paid out of pocket?  Thank you for clarifying! 

[Lee B]

Scholarships can come in flavors, (a) restricted usually to pay tuition or unrestricted when means that you can use them to pay

expenses like room & board, potentially leaving the tuition & fees to qualify for credits.

[RitaB]

3 hours ago, giogis245 said:

If I enter form 1098 with tuition paid and scholarship received, american opportunity credit is being given.  Is this correct?  I thought it was for tuition paid out of pocket?  Thank you for clarifying! 

Only qualified expenses paid with after tax funds can be used for education credit / tuition and fees deduction purposes.  That is correct.

I figure out what qualified expenses they paid with after tax dollars (yes, there are strategies) and enter that number in the input sheet in Box 1 "payments received" if it's tuition, or at the bottom for fee and books.  I am not doing what the worksheets want me to do, but I know what I'm trying to say on the tax return. 

[WITAXLADY]

I agree with Rita - been doing it that way for years and the Jan update class finally taught it!!