total tuition year you may not want to claim the Hope Credit but rather the Lifetime or the Tuition and Fees Deduction instead. Again, the Hope requires a full-time student status for the year. If the student is in High School and starts in September to college they will be a full-time student for the year but may not have that much in total tuition paid for post-secondary tuition.

2) Advance Child Tax Credit. In the personal information section you will input the amount of Advanced Child Tax Credit you received. If your filing status in Tax Year 2008 was 'married filing jointly' this amount may be one-half of the amount of the check deposited into your bank account. One-half of the amount is considered to be received by each spouse if your prior filing status was married filing jointly. An Example. You received jointly $400 for your step-daughter. You separated and are claiming your step-daughter. For the Advanced Child Tax Credit you will be claiming $200 and not $400. Your spouse will not need to claim or record the other $200 on their tax return. You will input $200 for the Advanced Child Tax Credit input line. The Child Tax Credit is based upon the individual child dependent and the recipients of the credit only claim the amount which they actually have received. On the flip side if you did not claim the dependent on your personal income tax return for tax year 2008 and claim a dependent this year you will get the full $400 Advanced Child Tax Credit amount subject to eligibility and personal tax liability. In this case your input in the Advanced Child Tax Credit line will be zero or blank.