I did a search and found a little info. I understand somewhat tuition vs room and board. What I'm wondering is, my son is 18 and we haven't been able to take advantage of the child/dependent care deduction for awhile because of income. Reading others have suggested one would be better off to have the kid file and put all this on his return. Any parents here maybe have any advice they could share.
I mostly go the tax software route but would be open to a CPA.
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I would consult a tax attorney or CPA.
Is your child in college (referring to the title)? If they are over 13, they don't quality for "the child/dependent care deduction" (hence, not showing up with your tax software for several years now).
However, depending on how much the scholarship and the other funds used to pay tuition (ie US Savings Bonds, 529 plans are already tax exempt or deferred) you may be eligible to take a deduction with the American Opportunity Tax Credit, up to $2500 per child for 4 years.
You have to be strategic. We did not fully fund our children's 529 plans, and put some in to other taxable funds so we could take advantage of this credit.
(I am not a CPA, but use Turbo Tax and study this stuff. I am weird and like numbers).
I think most folks do not understand the ever changing tax laws and just hand their stuff to their CPA (who then uses a tax software program), and as long as they get a refund they are happy.
To be clear the scholarship is in the form of athletic and academic.
Another thought, if you are using Turbo Tax, play around with it. Set your son up and do a mock tax return to see how it comes out, (and penalizes you?).
Their last year of college, when they are in school for only half of the year, you can still claim them as a dependent and take the deduction, even though they may be earning money. They will fill out their own tax return with someone else claiming them. I did this last year with son #1. I told him it was our last chance to squeeze the last little bit of deductions using him (he still got a refund on his own return so he was happy).
I will come back later and maybe explain how I will file son #2. He was in school only half the year in 2017, and hopefully only half a year in 2018 and 2019 to finish up college. I will milk the deductions as long as I can 
