IRS 8917 Tuition and Fees Deduction Form

In order to calculate figure out tuition fees and deductions, the following form has to be completed and submitted to the IRS.

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Form 8917 (2016)	Page 	2	
General Instructions
Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code unless 
otherwise noted.
Future Developments
For the latest information about developments related to Form 
8917 and its instructions, such as legislation enacted after they 
were published, go to www.irs.gov/form8917.
What’s New
Form 1098-T requirement. For tax years beginning after June 
29, 2015, generally tax year 2016 returns for most taxpayers, 
the law requires a taxpayer (or a dependent) to have received a 
Form 1098-T from an eligible educational institution in order to 
claim the tuition and fees deduction, American opportunity 
credit, or the lifetime learning credit. 
However, for tax year 2016, a taxpayer may claim one of these 
education benefits if the student does not receive a Form 1098-T 
because the student's educational institution is not required to 
send a Form 1098-T to the student under existing rules (for 
example, if the student is a nonresident alien, has qualified 
education expenses paid entirely with scholarships, or has 
qualified education expenses paid under a formal billing 
arrangement). If a student's educational institution is not required 
to provide a Form 1098-T to the student, a taxpayer may claim 
one of these education benefits without a Form 1098-T if the 
taxpayer otherwise qualifies, can demonstrate that the taxpayer 
(or a dependent) was enrolled at an eligible educational 
institution, and can substantiate the payment of qualified tuition 
and related expenses.
Purpose of Form
Use Form 8917 to figure and take the deduction for tuition and 
fees expenses paid in 2016.
This deduction is based on adjusted qualified education 
expenses paid to an eligible educational institution  
(postsecondary). See Qualified Education Expenses, later, for 
more information.
TIP	You may be able to take the American opportunity credit 
or lifetime learning credit for your education expenses 
instead 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 2016 for academic periods beginning in 
2016 or  beginning in the first 3 months of 2017.
Generally, in order to claim the deduction for education 
expenses for a dependent, you must have paid the expenses in 
2016 and must claim an exemption for the student as a 
dependent on your 2016 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 cannot claim a tuition and fees deduction for any student 
if you or anyone else claims an American opportunity or lifetime 
learning credit (Form 8863) in 2016 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.	
Qualified Education Expenses
Generally, qualified education expenses are amounts paid in 
2016 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 or 
debit card, or with borrowed funds.
Qualified education expenses include nonacademic fees, 
such as student activity fees, athletic fees, or other expenses 
unrelated to the academic course of instruction, only if the fee 
must be paid to the institution as a condition of enrollment or 
attendance. However, fees for personal expenses (described 
below) are never qualified education expenses.
Qualified education expenses do not include amounts paid 
for:
• Personal expenses. This means room and board, insurance, 
medical expenses (including student health fees), transportation, 
and other similar personal, living, or family expenses.
• 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 or helps the 
student acquire or improve job skills.
Qualified education expenses do not include any expenses for 
which you take any other deduction, such as on Schedule A 
(Form 1040) or Schedule C (Form 1040).
You may receive Form 1098-T, Tuition Statement, from the 
institution reporting either payments received in 2016 (box 1) or 
amounts billed in 2016 (box 2). However, the amount in box 1 or 
2 of Form 1098-T may be different from the amount you paid (or 
are treated as having paid). In completing Form 8917, use only 
the amounts you actually paid (plus any amounts you are 
treated as having paid) in 2016 (reduced, as necessary, as 
described in Adjusted Qualified Education Expenses, later). See 
chapter 6 of Pub. 970 for more information on Form 1098-T.
Qualified education expenses paid directly to the institution 
by someone other than you or the student are treated as paid to 
the student and then paid by the student to the institution. 
Academic Period
An academic period is any quarter, semester, trimester, or any 
other period of study as reasonably determined by an eligible 
educational institution. If an eligible educational institution uses 
credit hours or clock hours and does not have academic terms, 
each payment period may be treated as an academic period. 
Prepaid Expenses
Qualified education expenses paid in 2016 for an academic 
period that begins in the first 3 months of 2017 can be used in 
figuring the tuition and fees deduction for 2016 only. See 
Academic Period, earlier. For example, if you pay $2,000 in 
December 2016 for qualified tuition for the 2017 winter quarter 
that begins in January 2017, you can use that $2,000 in figuring 
the tuition and fees deduction for 2016 only (if you meet all the 
other requirements).

Form 8917 (2016)	Page 	3	
You cannot use any amount you paid in 2015 or 2017 to 
figure the qualified education expenses you use to figure 
your 2016 tuition and fees deduction.	▲!CAUTION
Adjusted Qualified Education Expenses
For each student, reduce the qualified education expenses paid 
by or on behalf of that student under the following rules. The 
result is the amount of adjusted qualified education expenses 
for each student.
Tax-free educational assistance. For tax-free educational 
assistance received in 2016, reduce the qualified educational 
expenses for each academic period by the amount of tax-free 
educational assistance allocable to that academic period. See 
Academic Period, earlier.Tax-free educational assistance includes:
1. The tax-free part of any scholarship or fellowship grant 
(including Pell grants),
2. The tax-free part of any employer-provided educational 
assistance,
3. Veterans' educational assistance, and
4. Any other educational assistance that is excludable from 
gross income (tax free), other than as a gift, bequest, devise, or 
inheritance.
TIP	You may be able to increase the combined value of your 
tuition and fees deduction and certain educational 
assistance if the student includes some or all of the 
educational assistance in income in the year it is received. For 
details, see Adjustments to Qualified Education Expenses, in 
chapter 6 of Pub. 970.
Generally, any scholarship or fellowship grant is treated as 
tax-free educational assistance. However, a scholarship or 
fellowship grant is not treated as tax-free educational assistance 
to the extent the student includes it in gross income (the student 
may or may not be required to file a tax return) for the year the 
scholarship or fellowship grant is received and either:
• The scholarship or fellowship grant (or any part of it)  must be 
applied (by its terms) to expenses (such as room and board) 
other than qualified education expenses as defined in  Qualified 
education expenses in Pub. 970, chapter 1; or 
• The scholarship or fellowship grant (or any part of it)  may be 
applied (by its terms) to expenses (such as room and board) 
other than qualified education expenses as defined in  Qualified 
education expenses in Pub. 970, chapter 1.
Tax-free educational assistance treated as a refund.  Some 
tax-free educational assistance received after 2016 may be 
treated as a refund of qualified education expenses paid in 
2016. This tax-free educational assistance is any tax-free 
educational assistance received by you or anyone else after 
2016 for qualified education expenses paid on behalf of a 
student in 2016 (or attributable to enrollment at an eligible 
educational institution during 2016).
If this tax-free educational assistance is received after 2016 
but before you file your 2016 income tax return, see Refunds 
received after 2016 but before your income tax return is filed, 
later. If this tax-free educational assistance is received after 
2016 and after you file your 2016 income tax return, see 
Refunds received after 2016 and after your income tax return is 
filed, later.
Refunds. A refund of qualified education expenses may reduce 
adjusted qualified education expenses for the tax year or may 
require you to include some or all of the refund in your gross 
income for the year the refund is received. See chapter 6 of 
Pub. 970 for more information. Some tax-free educational 
assistance received after 2016 may be treated as a refund. See 
Tax-free educational assistance treated as a refund,  earlier.Refunds received in 2016. For each student, figure the 
adjusted qualified education expenses for 2016 by adding all 
the qualified education expenses paid in 2016 and subtracting 
any refunds of those expenses received from the eligible 
educational institution during 2016.
Refunds received after 2016 but before your income tax 
return is filed. If anyone receives a refund after 2016 of 
qualified education expenses you paid on behalf of a student in 
2016 and the refund is received before you file your 2016 
income tax return, reduce the amount of qualified education 
expenses for 2016 by the amount of the refund.
Refunds received after 2016 and after your income tax 
return is filed. If anyone receives a refund after 2016 of 
qualified education expenses you paid on behalf of a student in 
2016 and the refund is received after you file your 2016 income 
tax return, you may need to include some or all of the refund in 
your gross income for the year the refund is received. See 
chapter 6 of Pub. 970 for more information.
Coordination with Coverdell education savings accounts 
and qualified tuition programs. Reduce your qualified 
education expenses by any qualified education expenses used 
to figure the exclusion from gross income of (a) interest received 
under an education savings bond program, or (b) any 
distribution from a Coverdell education savings account 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.	
Eligible Educational Institution
An eligible educational institution is generally any accredited 
public, nonprofit, or proprietary (private) college, university, 
vocational school, or other postsecondary institution. Also, the 
institution must be eligible to participate in a student aid 
program administered by the Department of Education. Virtually 
all accredited postsecondary institutions meet this definition.
An eligible educational institution also includes certain 
educational institutions located outside the United States that 
are eligible to participate in a student aid program administered 
by the Department of Education.
TIP	The educational institution should be able to tell you if it 
is an eligible institution. 	
Additional Information
See Pub. 970, chapter 6, for more information about the tuition 
and fees deduction.
Specific Instructions
Line 1
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 2016 for academic periods beginning after 2015 but 
before April 1, 2017.