Tried searching but didn't see anything that specifically matches my situation...
1) Married filing jointly
2) In calendar 2011, I was a fulltime medical student. Received 1098T, no W2.
3) In calendar 2011, my wife was a full-time medical student Jan1-Jun30, and then became some category of graduate student (doing a research year) so that her student loans do not enter repayment. However, no tuition is charged, and she is paid a graduate student stipend. At our school, the "semester" including Jan1-Jun30 was billed in Dec 2010. She received a W2, no 1098T.
4) Our school requires that we pass two exams in order to graduate (USMLE 1, USMLE 2).
5) However, passing these two exams (along with USMLE 3) is required for initial licensure to practice medicine in the US.
6) I paid about $600 for my testing fees, my wife paid about $1700 in fees and another $300 or so to travel to sit for one of those exams. (One of the exams only has a dozen or so testing facilities throughout the country)
So my questions:
1) Can these fees be used for deduction purposes?
2) If yes, it looks like one of us can claim deductions and the other a credit. Could we deduct my wife's fees and have me claim a credit? (She earned the income, I did not; but we are filing jointly)