<p>Last night I found documentation for an additional $1,500 in tuition payments that I did not include on my tax return. I have two questions, which I hope are as simple as I think they are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Can I file an amended return to take the additional deduction?</p></li>
<li><p>Will doing so make an audit, or other hassles, more likely? My tax return is pretty simple: all income reported on a single W-2, some deductions for educational expenses, and a few hundred dollars in charitable donations.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>You can file the 1040x it really isn’t that complicated. I’ve had to do it a couple of times. Just go [Internal</a> Revenue Service](<a href=“http://www.irs.gov%5DInternal”>http://www.irs.gov) and download the forms that you need.</p>
<p>Did you take a tuition deduction on your original return? Or did you take the tax credit? How much did you take? The maximum tuition/fees that will apply to the tax credit is $4000 per student ($2500 credit). The maximum tuition that can be used for a tuition deduction is $4000 (the amount of tax saved would depend on your tax rate). </p>
<p>If you have already used $4000 tuition/fees for the student to claim the $2500 AOC tax credit, or $4000 total toward a deduction, then the additional $1500 will not make a difference.</p>
<p>I should still be under the $4,000 maximum, but I’ll plug in the numbers and see.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help, happymomof1 and swimcatsmom.</p>
<p>If you are using the deduction rather than the credit, and your state income tax is calculated from federal AGI, then you should also file an amended state return. The 1040X is not difficult if you run the corrected tax return first and then plug in the line items.</p>
<p>Amended returns are more subject to audit than originally filed ones, but in this case, when it’s easy to explain in the explanation section and easy to have proof, I wouldn’t worry about the increased audit risk.</p>