 Example two, Wilbert was eligible for the American Opportunity Credit for 2018, 19, 20 and 22, Wilbert's parents claimed the American Opportunity Credits for Wilbert on their tax returns for 2018, 19, and 20. No one claimed an American Opportunity Credit for Wilbert for any other tax year, so only three years thus far, the American Opportunity Credit has been claimed for Wilbert for only three tax years before 2022. Therefore, Wilbert meets the second requirement to be eligible for the American Opportunity Credit. If Wilbert were to file form 8863 for 2022, the box on part three, line 23, should be checked. No, if Wilbert meets all the other requirements, he is eligible for the American Opportunity Credit. Let's do another one. Example number three, these are great. Glenda enrolls on a full-time basis in a degree program for the 2023 spring semester, which begins in January 2023. So we're talking tax year 2022, but it doesn't happen until 2023. Glenda pays the tuition for the 2023 spring semester in December 2022 and we're usually on a cash-based system, so you paid for it, but you didn't actually get the education or you're not gonna until 2023, even though you paid for it in 2022 with the tax year being 2022. Because the tuition Glenda paid in 2022 relates to an academic period that begins in the first three months of 2023, the eligibility to claim an American Opportunity Credit in 2022 is determined as if the 2023 spring semester began in 2022. So under normal conditions, you would think that would be the case. Under normal conditions, in other words, you would think you would be on a cash-based type of system, possibly being able to take the credit for the payments made in the year they were made, not when the service was provided. However, if you try to take advantage of that system, which would be usually a more unusual circumstance by trying to prepay more upfront, then that's why they put this three-month limitation thing in there. All right, therefore Glenda satisfies this third requirement. All right, tip. If the requirements above aren't met for any student, you can't claim the American Opportunity Credit for that student. You may be able to claim the Lifetime Learning Credit. So if you can't get the better one, American Opportunity Credit, you might be able to get the worse one, but it's better than nothing, the Lifetime Learning Credit for part or all of that student's qualified education expenses instead. Who can't claim the credit then? Who can't do it? You can't claim the American Opportunity Credit for 2022 if any of the following apply. So your filing status is married filing separately. They don't want that because they think you're gonna take advantage of it possibly by trying to lower your AGI, Adjusting Gross Income, below the threshold so you can take it or something like that. So that's common with if you're married, then and you're looking for some credits for these credits, then usually it's better to file married filing joint than married filing separate. You are claimed as a dependent on another person's tax return as such as your parent's return. So if you're claimed as a dependent, you can't claim the credit yourself because the assumption is that your parent is supporting you. That's one of the conditions to be a dependent. So you would think that your parent possibly could claim the credit, but not the student. So see who can claim a dependent's expense later. Your modified Adjusting Gross Income, your MAGI, your Adjusting Gross Income, which might be modified by a factor which could be related to foreign income or something like that. But typically your Adjusting Gross Income, that's a phase out is $90,000 or more, 180,000 or more if filing jointly, MAGI Adjusting Gross Income modified is explained later under effect of the amount of your income on the amount of your credit. Okay, you or your spouse were a non-resident alien for any part of 2022 and the non-resident alien didn't elect to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes. More information on non-resident aliens can be found in publication 519 if you wanna dive into that in more detail. You weren't issued an SSN Social Security Number or I-10 by the due date of your 2022 return including extensions. You can't claim the American Opportunity Credit on either your original or amended 2022 return. Also, you can't claim this credit on your original or amended 2022 return for a student who wasn't issued an SSN Social Security Number, an A-10 adoption number or an I-10 by the due date of your return, including extensions if an A-10 or I-10 is applied for on or before the due date of a 2022 return, including extensions and the IRS issues an A-10 or I-10 as a result of the application, the IRS will consider the A-10 or I-10 as issued on or before the due date of the return. All right, here's our flu chart question and answer. Can you take the credit American Opportunity only not talking lifetime learning here? So you can claim the American Opportunity Credit for 2022. So did you pay qualified education expenses in 2022 for an eligible student? Normally you will get the form from the financial institution indicating at least tuition was paid. If yes, we continue on. If no, we go down here. You can't claim the American Opportunity Credit. Next item, did the academic period for which you paid qualified education expenses began in 2022 or the first three months of 2023. So you paid for it in 2022. We're on a cash-based system. So that's usually when you're possibly able to get it or even if you didn't start until three months, you know, this classes didn't start until like three months of 2023 within three months. If yes, we continue. If no, no, is the eligible student you, your spouse have married filing jointly or you're dependent, you claim on your tax return. So are they you, your joint spouse or dependent, someone with a social security number on your return? If yes, we continue. If no, no, are you listed as a dependent on another person's tax return? So in this case, we would think no, because if we were a dependent on someone else's tax return, then we would think these someone else possibly could get the deduction, not us because in essence they're supporting us financially, you would think. So in this case, no continue. If yes, you can't take the deduction, but possibly the other person who's claiming you can. Next is your filing status, married filing separately. So you can't have that. The IRS is skeptical of married filing separately. So if you're married, you gotta file married filing joint is the general idea. So if no, it's not filing separately, we continue for any part of 2022 where you or your spouse, a non-resident alien who didn't elect to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes. So we gotta say no on that one and to continue. If so, then is your modified adjusted gross income? Your MAGI, this is the income phase out $90,000, 180,000 if married filing jointly. If it grows income less than that, it's gotta be less than that. If it's over that, then you're gonna lose the credit capacity because you make too much money. But if it's less than that, we continue. Did you use the same expenses to claim a deduction or credit? So you can't like double dip on the credit. So if you used the same expenses to get a deduction somewhere or you use them for another kind of credit, you can't like take the same expenses and apply it to another credit that would be double dipping on the expenses. And so we're gonna say no, we're the same expenses paid entirely with a tax-free scholarship, grant, or employer-provided education assistance. So that would kind of be similar to the double dipping if it were because if you got tax-free money for free to pay for the expenses, it's not really an expense because you got free money to pay for the expense with the scholarship or grant or if the employer provided the benefit and you didn't include it in income because that was the point of them providing the money so it's not included in box one of the W-2 form, then you would think you can't get an expense because you're not paying in taxes on the income. You already got a benefit for it in that case. And then so we'll say no, did you or someone else receive a refund of all the expenses? Did you or someone else receive a refund of all the expenses? So in other words, I guess you paid for the expenses there and then they refunded the expenses in which case you didn't really pay for the expenses because they were refunded. So we're gonna say no, then you claim the American Opportunity Credit for 2022. There's some qualifications down here, but that's the general questionnaire you can have in your mind. You can picture that nice questionnaire in your mind when asking these questions and then you wanna overlap that with the Lifetime Learning Credit questionnaire.