Tax Breaks for Education In 2022, Margery and Philip Brown have three children attending college full-time and they claim all three as dependents. They also have education related expenses for Philip. They paid for the following expenses

1. Their daughter, Amy, is a Masters student in both Spring 2022 and Fall 2022 at Wake Forest where she received a scholarship for part of her tuition. Her parents paid a total of tuition of $11,000 and room & board of $7,500 (all paid in 2022).

2. Their son, Brad, is a freshman in Spring 2022 and a sophomore in Fall 2022 at Appalachian State University. His parents paid a total of tuition and fees of $8,000 and room & board of $6,500 (all paid in 2022).

3. Their daughter, Elizabeth, started at UNC-CH as a freshman in Fall 2022. She receives a scholarship that covers her tuition, but her parents paid required fees of $1,800. Her parents also paid room & board of $7,000 and textbooks for $1,200.

4. Philip is a self-employed lawyer. He completed continuing education courses that are required to meet the requirements of North Carolina State law and cost $4,000. (You can ignore any effects on self-employment tax.)

5. Philip is also paying off student loans from law school. He paid $3,400 of interest in 2022. Other information related to their tax return:

AGI before the effects of education related deductions 167,000

state income tax payments 10,100

real estate taxes 4,200

home mortgage interest 10,400

charitable contributions 6,700

AGI before education deductions
Professional education for a self-employed individual
AGI before student loan interest deduction
Student loan interest deduction
Student loan interest phase out (will need multiple rows to calculate or a calculation somewhere else in the worksheet)
AGI
Standard deduction
Itemized Deductions (taxes (limited to 10,000), interest, and charitable) (will need multiple rows to calculate or a calculation somewhere else in the worksheet)
Taxable Income
Tax calculate tax on taxable income using the tax rate schedule
American Opportunity Credit (AOC) (will need multiple rows to calculate or a calculation somewhere else in the worksheet)
Lifetime Learning Credit (LL) (will need multiple rows to calculate or a calculation somewhere else in the worksheet)
Phase out of education credits (will need multiple rows to calculate or a calculation somewhere else in the worksheet)
Total education credits after phase out
Child Tax Credit - $500 per child >17
Tax after Credits

I am ok with doing the calculations, but I thought AGI of 167,000 was the correct place to start as the AGI before education expenses, but have been told that is incorrect.