Form 8917 Tuition and Fees Deduction

Form

8917

OMB No. 1545-0074

Tuition and Fees Deduction

2011

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

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service

Attachment
Sequence No.
Your social security number

Name(s) shown on return

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CAUTION

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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.

Before you begin:

✔ 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 2011 Form 1040 instructions for line 36.

1

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

2
3
4

5

6

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

Last name

Add the amounts on line 1, column (c), and enter the total . . . .
Enter the amount from Form 1040, line 22, or Form 1040A, line 15
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

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(c) Qualified
expenses (see
instructions)

2

3

• Form 1040A, lines 16 through 18. . . . . . . . . . .
4
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,
see Effect of the Amount of Your Income on the Amount of Your Deduction in Pub. 970, chapter
6, to figure the amount to enter on line 5.
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.

}

. . . . . .
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.

What's New
Future developments. The IRS has created a page on IRS.gov for
information about Form 8917, at www.irs.gov/form8917. Information
about any future developments affecting Form 8917 (such as legislation
enacted after we release it) will be posted on that page.

General Instructions
Purpose of Form
Use Form 8917 to figure and take the deduction for tuition and fees
expenses paid in 2011.
This deduction is based on qualified education expenses
paid to an eligible postsecondary educational institution. See What
Expenses Qualify, later, for more information.
You may be able to take the American opportunity credit or
lifetime learning credit for your education expenses instead
TIP of the tuition and fees deduction. See Form 8863, Education
Credits, and Pub. 970, Tax Benefits for Education, for more
information about these credits.

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
2011 for academic periods beginning in 2011 and those beginning in the
first 3 months of 2012.
For Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, see your tax return instructions.

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CAUTION

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Qualified education expenses must be reduced by
any expenses paid directly or indirectly using tax-free
educational assistance. See Adjusted qualified education
expenses, later.

Generally, in order to claim the deduction for qualified education
expenses for a dependent, you must have paid the expenses in 2011
and must claim an exemption for the student as a dependent on your
2011 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).
• 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 an American opportunity or lifetime learning
credit (Form 8863) in 2011 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.

Cat. No. 37728P

Form 8917 (2011)

Page 2

Form 8917 (2011)

What Expenses Qualify
Qualified education expenses. Generally, qualified education
expenses are amounts paid in 2011 for tuition and fees required for the
student’s enrollment or attendance at an eligible educational institution.
Required fees include amounts for books, supplies, and equipment
used in a course of study if required to be paid to the institution as a
condition of enrollment or attendance. 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.

Example. You paid $8,000 tuition and fees in December 2011 for your
child to begin college in the academic term beginning in January 2012.
During the academic term beginning in January 2012, your child
dropped two courses. Before you file your tax return for 2011, you
received a refund of $5,600. Refigure your 2011 tuition and fees
deduction using $2,400 of qualified expenses instead of $8,000. Do not
include any part of the $5,600 in income for 2012.

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 (defined earlier).

More Information

• 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.

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

• 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.

Line 1

You should receive Form 1098-T, Tuition Statement, from the college
or university reporting either payments received in 2011 (box 1) or
amounts billed in 2011 (box 2). However, the amounts in box 1 or 2 of
Form 1098-T may be different from what you actually paid. On Form
8917, line 1, enter only the amounts you paid in 2011 for qualified
expenses (reduced, if necessary, as described below).
Adjusted qualified education expenses. You must reduce the total of
your qualified education expenses by the following items.
• Any tax-free educational assistance you received for the qualified
expenses you paid in 2011 if you receive the tax-free assistance in 2011
or in 2012 but before you file your 2011 tax return. Tax-free educational
assistance includes a tax-free scholarship, Pell grant, or tax-free
employer-provided educational assistance.
• Any refunds of qualified education expenses you paid in 2011 if you
(or anyone else) received the refund in 2011 or in 2012 but before you
file your 2011 tax return.
• Any qualified education expenses for which you take any other
deduction, such as on Schedule A (Form 1040) or Schedule C (Form
1040).
• Any qualified 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). For a QTP, this applies only to
the amount of tax-free earnings that were distributed, not to the
recovery of contributions to the program.
Your qualified education expenses, reduced by these items, are your
adjusted qualified education expenses. You can use the Qualified
Education Expenses Worksheet for Column (c) to figure your adjusted
qualified education expenses. See Pub. 970, chapter 6, for specific
information.
If, after you file your 2011 tax return, you receive any tax-free
educational assistance for the qualified education expenses you paid in
2011 or you or anyone else receives any refund of qualified education
expenses you paid in 2011, you generally must figure the amount by
which your taxable income would have increased if the refund or
tax-free assistance had been received in 2011. Generally, include that
amount (but only up to the amount of the deduction that reduced your
tax) as additional income for the year the refund or tax-free assistance is
received. See Non-Itemized Deduction Recoveries in Pub. 525 for more
information.
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.

Specific Instructions
Complete columns (a) through (c) on line 1 for each student 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 adjusted qualified education
expenses. The expenses must have been paid for the student in 2011
for academic periods beginning after 2010 but before April 1, 2012.
You can use the worksheet that follows to figure the
correct amount to enter in column (c).
Qualified Education Expenses Worksheet for Column (c)
(Do a separate worksheet for each student)
See What Expenses Qualify, earlier, before completing.
1. Total qualified education expenses .

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2. Less adjustments:
a. Tax-free educational assistance, received
in 2011 or before 2011 tax return filed, for
qualified education expenses paid in 2011
b. Refunds received in 2011 or before 2011
tax return filed, for qualified education
expenses paid in 2011 . . . . . .
c. Qualified education expenses deducted on
Schedule A (Form 1040) or Schedule C
(Form 1040) . . . . . . . . .
d. Qualified education expenses used to
figure the exclusion from gross income of
interest received under an education
savings bond program or distributions
from an ESA or QTP . . . . . .
3. Total adjustments (add lines 2a through 2d)

4. Adjusted qualified education expenses (subtract line 3
from line 1). Enter here and on Form 8917, line 1,
column (c). If zero or less, enter -0. . . . .