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@brittanypod wrote:

If the taxpayer did not pay anything out of pocket for education they should not get any education credits even if their box 1 has an amount. 

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Not necessarily.

If the scholarships/grants were allowed to be used for non-tuition (for example, Pell grants), then those amounts could be allocated to non-tuition (creating more taxable scholarships), but would mean they did pay some for tuition, which could allow an educational credit.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p970#en_US_2024_publink100060350