Requirements

• You or someone paying on your behalf must pay interest on your loan during the year for which you are filing taxes. The loan must be in your name and must have been taken out to pay for education expenses. You cannot have a filing status of married filing separately. Your adjusted gross income must be less than $75,000, or $150,000 if married filing jointly, as of 2011. Lastly, you cannot be claimed as a dependent on another person's tax return in the same year. This last provision often affects recent college graduates who paid interest on their loans after graduating but are still being claimed by their parents for the year.
  
  

Amount of Deduction

• Most people can deduct all of the student loan interest you paid during the year, up to a maximum amount of $2,500 per year. To find the amount of interest you paid, obtain form 1098-E from your lender. The lender is required to send this to you if you paid more than $600 in interest during the calendar year. Even if you paid less than $600 in interest, the lender will provide the amount to you on form 1098-E at your request.
  
  

Partial Deduction

• If your adjusted gross income is between $60,000 and $75,000, or between $120,000 and $150,000 if married filing jointly, you are only eligible for a partial deduction of your student loan interest. To calculate the amount of the partial deduction, subtract $60,000 from your adjusted gross income and divide the result by $15,000. Multiply the answer by the amount of interest you paid, up to the maximum amount of $2,500. If you are married filing jointly, use $120,000 in place of $60,000 and $30,000 in place of $15,000 in the above calculations.
  
  

How to File

• You must use form 1040, 1040A, 1040NR or 1040NR-EZ to claim the student loan interest deduction. You cannot claim it on Form 1040EZ. However, you do not have to itemize your deductions on Schedule A to claim the student loan interest deduction. The amount of the deduction goes on line 33 on Form 1040 or 1040NR, line 18 on Form 1040A or line 9 on Form 1040NR-EZ, as of 2011.