Hi there,

I'm sure this question gets asked a lot, but:

I graduated from college in the Spring of 2014, but my 1098-T's Boxes 1 and 2 (Payments received for tuition, and Amounts billed for tuition) are blank. On the other hand, Box 5 (Scholarships or grants) does list my scholarship money from that semester. My guess is it's possible my parents paid the balance (Spring 2015 Tuition minus Box 5) at some point near the end of 2013, the semester before. But it was paid for the Spring semester, and I was a full-time student and all that. My tax software made it seem like this is a special case where I can claim the education tax credit, but I've been seeing conflicting pieces of advice/information on the web. Can I or can I not claim this tax credit (assuming neither of my parents do)?

Thanks in advance for your help! I really truly appreciate it.