8917 T uition and Fees Deduction

Form

8917

OMB No. 1545-0074

Tuition and Fees Deduction

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service

©

2008

© See Instructions.
Attach to Form 1040 or Form 1040A.

Name(s) shown on return

Attachment
Sequence No.

63

Your social security number

You cannot take both an education credit from Form 8863 and the tuition and fees deduction from this form for the
same student for the same tax year.
CAUTION

Before you begin:

1

✔ To see if you qualify for this deduction, see Who Can Take the Deduction in the instructions below.
✔ If you file Form 1040, figure any write-in adjustments to be entered on the dotted line next to Form
1040, line 36. See the 2008 Form 1040 instructions for line 36.

(a) Student’s name (as shown on page 1 of your tax return)
First name

Last name

(b) Student’s social security
number (as shown on page
1 of your tax return)

2

2

Add the amounts on line 1, column (c), and enter the total

3

Enter the amount from Form 1040, line 22, or Form 1040A, line 15

3

4

Enter the total from either:
● Form 1040, lines 23 through 33, plus any write-in adjustments
entered on the dotted line next to Form 1040, line 36, or
● Form 1040A, lines 16 through 18

4

5

(c) Qualified
expenses (see
instructions)

Subtract line 4 from line 3.* If the result is more than $80,000 ($160,000 if married filing jointly)
STOP You cannot take the deduction for tuition and fees

5

*If you are filing Form 2555, 2555-EZ, or 4563, or you are excluding income from Puerto Rico, use
Worksheet 6-1 in Pub. 970 to figure the amount to enter.

6

Tuition and fees deduction. Is the amount on line 5 more than $65,000 ($130,000 if married
filing jointly)?
Yes. Enter the smaller of line 2, or $2,000.

%

6

No. Enter the smaller of line 2, or $4,000.
Also enter this amount on Form 1040, line 34, or Form 1040A, line 19.
Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code unless otherwise
noted.

General Instructions
What’s New
Students in Midwestern disaster areas. The definition of qualified
education expenses is expanded for students attending an eligible
educational institution in the Midwestern disaster areas in the states of
Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
See Table 3-2 in chapter 3 of Pub. 970 for the eligible counties. See
Students in Midwestern disaster areas, later, for information about this
expanded definition of qualified education expenses.

Purpose of Form
Use Form 8917 to figure and take the deduction for tuition and fees
expenses paid in 2008.
This deduction is based on qualified education expenses paid to
an eligible postsecondary educational institution. See What Expenses
Qualify, on page 2, for more information.
You may be able to take the Hope credit or lifetime
learning credit for your education expenses instead of the
TIP
tuition and fees deduction. Figure your tax both ways and
choose the one that gives you the lower tax. See Form
8863, Education Credits, and Pub. 970, Tax Benefits for Education,
for more information about the Hope and lifetime learning credits.

For Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, see back of form.

Who Can Take the Deduction
You may be able to take the deduction if you, your spouse, or a
dependent you claim on your tax return was a student enrolled at or
attending an eligible educational institution. The deduction is based
on the amount of qualified education expenses you paid for the
student in 2008 for academic periods beginning in 2008 and the first 3
months of 2009.

CAUTION

Qualified education expenses must be reduced by any
expenses paid directly or indirectly using tax-free
educational assistance. See Tax-free educational
assistance and refunds of qualified education expenses

on page 2.
Generally, in order to claim the deduction for qualified education
expenses for a dependent, you must have paid the expenses in 2008
and must claim an exemption for the student as a dependent on
your 2008 tax return (line 6c of Form 1040 or 1040A). For additional
information, see chapter 6 of Pub. 970.
You cannot claim the tuition and fees deduction if any of the
following apply.
● Your filing status is married filing separately.
● Another person can claim an exemption for you as a dependent
on his or her tax return. You cannot take the deduction even if the
other person does not actually claim that exemption.
● Your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), as figured on line 5,
is more than $80,000 ($160,000 if filing a joint return).
Cat. No. 37728P

Form

8917

(2008)

Form 8917 (2008)

● You were a nonresident alien for any part of the year and did not
elect to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes. More
information on nonresident aliens can be found in Pub. 519, U.S. Tax
Guide for Aliens.
● You or anyone else claims a Hope or lifetime learning credit (Form
8863) in 2008 with respect to expenses of the student for whom the
qualified education expenses were paid. However, a state tax credit
will not disqualify you from claiming a tuition and fees deduction.

What Expenses Qualify
Qualified education expenses. Generally, qualified education
expenses are amounts paid in 2008 for tuition and fees required for
the student’s enrollment or attendance at an eligible educational
institution. It does not matter whether the expenses were paid in
cash, by check, by credit card, or with borrowed funds.
Qualified education expenses do not include amounts paid for:
● Room and board, insurance, medical expenses (including student
health fees), transportation, or other similar personal, living, or family
expenses.
● Course-related books, supplies, equipment, and nonacademic
activities, except for fees and expenses required to be paid to the
institution as a condition of enrollment or attendance.
● Any course or other education involving sports, games, or
hobbies, or any noncredit course, unless such course or other
education is part of the student’s degree program.
You should receive Form 1098-T, Tuition Statement, from the
college or university reporting either payments received in box 1 or
amounts billed in box 2. However, the amounts in boxes 1 and 2 of
Form 1098-T may be different than what you actually paid. On Form
8917, line 1, enter only the amounts you paid in 2008 for qualified
expenses.
If you or the student take a deduction for higher education
expenses, such as on Schedule A or Schedule C (Form 1040), you
cannot use those expenses when figuring your tuition and fees
deduction.
You cannot take a tuition and fees deduction for qualified higher
education expenses used to figure the exclusion from gross income
of (a) interest received under an education savings bond program, or
(b) distributions from a Coverdell education savings account (ESA) or
qualified tuition program (QTP).
Eligible educational institution. An eligible educational institution is
any college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary
educational institution eligible to participate in a student aid program
administered by the Department of Education. It includes virtually all
accredited public, nonprofit, and proprietary (privately owned
profit-making) postsecondary institutions. The educational institution
should be able to tell you if it is an eligible educational institution.
Certain educational institutions located outside the United States
also participate in the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal
Student Aid (FSA) programs.
Tax-free educational assistance and refunds of qualified
education expenses. Tax-free educational assistance includes a
tax-free scholarship or Pell grant or tax-free employer-provided
educational assistance. See Pub. 970 for specific information.
You must reduce the total of your qualified education expenses by
any tax-free educational assistance and by any refunds of your
expenses. If the refund or tax-free assistance is received in the same
year in which the expenses were paid or in the following year before
you file your tax return, reduce your qualified education expenses by
the amount received and figure your tuition and fees deduction using
the reduced amount of qualified expenses. If the refund or tax-free
assistance is received after you file your return for the year in which
the expenses were paid, you must figure the amount by which your
tuition and fees deduction would have been reduced if the refund or
tax-free assistance had been received in the year for which you
claimed the tuition and fees deduction. Include that amount as
additional income for the year the refund or tax-free assistance was
received.
Example. You paid $8,000 tuition and fees in December 2007,
and your child began college in January 2008. You filed your 2007
tax return on February 7, 2008, and claimed a tuition and fees
deduction of $4,000. After you filed your return, your child dropped
two courses and you received a refund of $5,600. You must refigure

Page

2

your 2007 tuition and fees deduction using $2,400 of qualified
expenses instead of $8,000. The refigured deduction is $2,400. You
must include the difference of $1,600 on your 2008 Form 1040, line
21. You cannot file Form 1040A.
Students in Midwestern disaster areas. The definition of qualified
education expenses is expanded for students in these areas. In
addition to tuition and fees required for enrollment or attendance at
an eligible educational institution, qualified education expenses for
students in Midwestern disaster areas include the following.
1. Books, supplies, and equipment required for enrollment or
attendance at an eligible educational institution.
2. For a special needs student, expenses that are necessary for
that person’s enrollment or attendance at an eligible educational
institution.
3. For a student who is at least a half-time student, the reasonable
costs of room and board, but only to the extent that the costs are
not more than the greater of the following two amounts.
a. The allowance for room and board, as determined by the
eligible educational institution, that was included in the cost of
attendance (for federal financial aid purposes) for a particular
academic period and living arrangement of the student.
b. The actual amount charged if the student is residing in housing
owned or operated by the eligible educational institution.
You will need to contact the eligible educational institution for
qualified room and board costs.

Who Is an Eligible Student
For purposes of the tuition and fees deduction, an eligible student is a
student who was enrolled in one or more courses at an eligible
educational institution (as defined under Qualified education
expenses, earlier on this page). The student must have either a high
school diploma or a General Educational Development (GED)
credential.

More Information
See Pub. 970, chapter 6, for more information about this deduction.

Specific Instructions
Line 1
Complete columns (a) through (c) on line 1 for each student who
qualifies for and for whom you elect to take the tuition and fees
deduction.
Note. If you have more than three students who qualify for the tuition
and fees deduction, enter “See attached” next to line 1 and attach a
statement with the required information for each additional student.
Include the amounts from line 1, column (c), for all students in the total
you enter on line 2.

Column (c)
For each student, enter the amount of qualified education expenses
remaining after reduction by certain tax-free amounts and refunds, as
explained earlier. The expenses must have been paid for the student in
2008 for academic periods beginning after 2007 but before April 1, 2009.
Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask for the information on this
form to carry out the Internal Revenue laws of the United States. You
are required to give us the information. We need it to ensure that you
are complying with these laws and to allow us to figure and collect the
right amount of tax.
You are not required to provide the information requested on a
form that is subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act unless the form
displays a valid OMB control number. Books or records relating to a
form or its instructions must be retained as long as their contents
may become material in the administration of any Internal Revenue
law. Generally, tax returns and return information are confidential, as
required by section 6103.
The average time and expenses required to complete and file this
form will vary depending on individual circumstances. For the
estimated averages, see the instructions for your income tax return.
If you have suggestions for making this form simpler, we would be
happy to hear from you. See the instructions for your income tax
return.