Tuition transfer: Bottom line is refund, but 0.00 in tuition available to transfer to spouse?

[jeannehsinclair]

I am a student would like to transfer some tuition to my spouse. I have about $9500 in tuition to claim in 2018. I am confused because my bottom line is currently a refund of $1000, but Turbotax is telling me that I have $0.00 to transfer to him. Any help would be appreciated!

[TurboTaxKim · Accepted solution]

You may not have any tuition to transfer to your spouse for a few different reasons. Tuition is a Non-Refundable Tax Credit that is used to reduce your tax payable and only results in a refund of any tax you may have had withheld. Tax payable is what is calculated on your income entries, not the bottom line of a refund or balance due.

• The maximum amount you can transfer of "current year tuition credits" is $5,000. (If the tuition was a carry forward amount, you cannot transfer it).
• Any tuition credits used by you to reduce your own tax payable to zero, are subtracted from the amount you are able to transfer. For example: If you needed $5,000 to reduce your own tax payable to zero, the amount of tuition available to transfer would be zero.

You should look on your Student Summary and see how much of your tuition you used. It shows up as Amount Claimed in 2018.

https://turbotax.community.intuit.ca/replies/2647970

[jeannehsinclair]

Thanks, TurboTaxKim. The income is $24k, about $380 in deductions, and total taxes of $822.  All of the $9500 in tuition (the amount claimed, according to Student Summary) was needed to reduce my taxes to zero? Thank you again for your help.

[TurboTaxKim]

Glad I was able to help you understand "why" :relieved:

[ashley-lowenthal]

I think there is a bug in the ways the software is calculating the maximum amount of my tuition I am able to transfer to my spouse. My tax refund is currently about 3,300 and when I remove my tuition entirely, I am still in a refund situation, but my tax refund is about 300$ less. However, my husband is currently sitting in a tax return situation where we would owe about 500$ and it is telling me that I have 0$ maximum to transfer. It makes no sense!