Refund Education Credits - Hope Credit, LIfetime etc?

Question

If I add in my tuition information and I am given 3 choices...

1. Hope Credit - $1500
2. Lifetime Learning Credit - $719
3. Tuition and Books Credit - $919

Which do I take? I mean number 1 is the highest, but am I setting my self up to oweing someone later? What are the difference between the two?

Answer 1

You can only take the Hope credit for your first two years of post-secondary school. If you're eligible for that, it's by far the best. If not, go for the lifetime learning credit if you're eligible.

Note that the first two are credits, which reduce your tax dollar for dollar. The tuition and fees one is a deduction, not a credit, so you only get money back after the value is multiplied by your bracket percent. And note that it's tuition and FEES, not tuition and BOOKS - books are hardly ever deductible for any of the three.

Answer 2

If the quantity of the scholarships/factors coated the educational and expenses, you does no longer be eligible for the credit. you're saying you lived at abode for "approximately" 0.5 a 300 and sixty 5 days. develop into it greater beneficial than 0.5, or under 0.5? in case you lived there for OVER 0.5 the 300 and sixty 5 days, even via sooner or later, and you're below 24 as of the tip of the 300 and sixty 5 days, and you probably did no longer supply over 0.5 of your individual help, then you particularly would be a based and your mom and dad might get the credit fairly than you getting it. that is not any longer whether you predict a tax refund or no longer that counts, its' whether you had any tax legal duty - line 10 in case you used a 1040EZ.