--- title: Best Tax Breaks for College Students and Parents description: Based on your family income, you could qualify for several types of tax deductions for your child's college costs. authors: - name: annaheekang url: https://money.com/author/annaheekang/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 5 covers: - Career Advice - Housing - Investing - Retirement former_staff: true published: '2016-04-04T10:30:48.000Z' modified: '2016-04-04T10:30:48.000Z' section: Taxes tags: - american opportunity tax credit - AOTC - College - college tax credit - filing taxes - lifetime learning credit - LLC - Paying for College - student loan interest deduction - tax bill - tax break - Tax deduction canonical: https://money.com/collection-post/best-tax-breaks-for-college-students-and-parents/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![uncle sam handing money](https://img.money.com/2016/04/160404_col_taxbreaks.jpg?crop=0px%2C219px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85) *This man wants to help.* An array of federal tax breaks awaits you if you qualify for them based on your family income. They include the [American Opportunity Tax Credit](https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/AOTC) (AOTC), the [lifetime learning credit](https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/LLC) (LLC), and several types of tax deductions. The AOTC is the most lucrative—worth a maximum of $2,500 off your tax bill for the year as long as you paid at least $4,000 in tuition. It's open to married couples earning less than $180,000 a year (or singles earning less than $90,000). Since you can use only one of the college tax credits at a time, you'll want to take the AOTC first. One snag: You can't pay the $4,000 using any tax-advantaged money, such as your 529 college savings plan. So to maximize your AOTC, plan to pay the first $4,000 of tuition each fall out of current income, a loan, or from other savings. [![Best college education image](https://content.money.com/wp-content/themes/money2018/img/college-site-banner-02.png)](https://best-colleges.time.com/money/search-colleges/?xid=cm-mcpFindTheCollegeWidget) You can claim the AOTC for only four years per child. But you may be able to squeeze up to $2,000 more out of Uncle Sam if you earn no more than $130,000 (or for single parents, $65,000). To do that, plan to pay some tuition after Jan. 1 of your child's senior year. That will entitle you to claim the lifetime learning credit in year five, which reduces your tax bill by 20% of your tuition costs, up to $10,000 in tuition. ***Related:** [Do You Have to Pay Taxes on College Scholarships?](https://money.com/do-you-have-to-pay-taxes-on-college-scholarships/?iid=sr-link1)* If you aren't eligible for the LLC, you might be able to take the [tuition and fees deduction](https://www.irs.gov/Credits-&-Deductions/Individuals/Tuition-and-Fees-Deduction-Glance), which can be worth $1,000 or so, depending on your tax bracket. You may also qualify for a [student loan interest deduction](https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc456.html) if you borrowed money for college. More information on these and other education-related tax breaks is available in [IRS Publication 970](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/best-tax-breaks-for-college-students-and-parents/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Taxes", "item": "https://money.com/taxes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Tax Breaks", "item": "https://money.com/tax-breaks/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Best Tax Breaks for College Students and Parents" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/best-tax-breaks-for-college-students-and-parents/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/collection-post/best-tax-breaks-for-college-students-and-parents/", "name": "Best Tax Breaks for College Students and Parents", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-04-04T10:30:48.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/best-tax-breaks-for-college-students-and-parents/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/best-tax-breaks-for-college-students-and-parents/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-04-04T10:30:48.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Best Tax Breaks for College Students and Parents", "articleSection": "Taxes", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/04/160404_col_taxbreaks.jpg?crop=0px%2C219px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "160404_COL_TaxBreaks" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "annaheekang", "url": "https://money.com/author/annaheekang/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/annaheekang/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-04-04T10:30:48.000Z", "description": "Based on your family income, you could qualify for several types of tax deductions for your child's college costs.", "abstract": "Based on your family income, you could qualify for several types of tax deductions for your child's college costs.", "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/best-tax-breaks-for-college-students-and-parents/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-04-04T10:30:48.000Z", "keywords": [ "american opportunity tax credit", "AOTC", "College", "college tax credit", "filing taxes", "lifetime learning credit", "LLC", "Paying for College", "student loan interest deduction", "tax bill", "tax break", "Tax deduction" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Tax", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Tax break", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_break" ] } ] } ] } ```