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The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi who became notorious for using the technique in 1920.
In March 2009, Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars.
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, instead of from profit earned by the individual or organization that is running the operation.
The scheme usually entices new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. Perpetuation of the high returns requires an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to keep the scheme going

See Revenue Ruling 2009–9 and Revenue Procedure 2009-20.

None of the Lifetime Learning credit is refundable. 40% of the American Opportunity Credit may be refundable and the balance is nonrefundable.

40% of the American Opportunity Credit may be refundable and the balance is nonrefundable. None of the Lifetime Learning credit is refundable.

The limit on employee elective deferrals is $17,500 for 2013. ($17,000 for 2012) and $23,000 if age 50 or older ($22,500 in 2012)
The catch up contribution limit for employees 50 and over remains unchanged at $5,500.
Generally, all elective deferrals made to all plans in which you participate are aggregated to determine if you have exceeded these limits.

IRA Contributions $5,500 - IRA Catch-up Contributions $1,000 - Defined Benefit Plan Benefit $205,000 - Defined Contribution Plan Allocation $51,000 - 401(K) or 403(b)
Salary reduction deferrals $17,500 - 401(k) or 403(b) Catch-up Contributions $5,500 - SIMPLE plans $12,000 - SIMPLE plan Catch-up Contributions $2,500 -
Salary for pension plan $255,000 - Salary for highly compensated employee $115,000 - Salary for Key employee $165,000 - Salary for SEP eligibility $550
Social Security Taxable Wage base $113,700 -

Payments made in 2016 for academic periods beginning in 2016 or beginning in the first 3 months of 2017 qualify for the 2016 credit.

The student must be enrolled at least half time for atleast one academic period beginning during the year. The tution statement, Form 1098-T will have a checkbox checked if the sudent met the half of time requirement.

If a student is claimed as a dependent on another person's tax return, all qualifying educational expenses of the student are treated as having been paid by that person.
if a student is not claimed as a dependent on another person's tax return, only the student can claim the credit.

An academic period is any quarter, semester, trimester or any other period of study as resonable determined by an eligible educational institution.