Can a Non-Resident Deduct Student Loan Interest in MA

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
April 12, 2025
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I'm doing the taxes for my child who lived in one state and went to school in another (MA). I've completed the Federal return and have moved on to the MA state one (first) since that is non-resident. The software is allowing me to take a student loan deduction in MA but... is that correct? Not sure if it matters, but their earnings were about 65% in MA and 35% in their home state. Just want to make sure I am doing things right. TIA!

R2112Author

Quick follow up... I did some more looking online and it appears that the MA student loan interest deduction is tied to the Federal one. I.e., if they cannot take the Federal one, then they can't take the MA one. I am not 100% certain of this though as they cannot take the Federal deduction since they can be claimed as a dependent by us, but the software knows this and is still allowing the MA deduction for it. I would think that the software would know (it knew that they couldn't take the Federal student loan interest deduction). In the end, we're only talking about a $20 difference, so it may not be worth it, but we'd all prefer they don't pay any more in taxes than they have to.