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education tax credits

Education Tax Benefits

Going to college can be a stressful time for students and parents. Some of the costs of your education can be offset by tax credits and reductions to income.  These credits and reductions can be complicated, so it takes a bit of coordination to keep things straight.  More than one education tax benefit may be taken in one year, but generally the expenses must be segregated from one another in your reporting.  In other words, you couldn’t take two tax benefits based upon the exact same education expenses, with some exceptions.  For example, you can use most qualified expenses for the tax credits and apply the expense toward eliminating the 10% penalty on IRA distributions at the same time. Generally though, most tax benefits for education can only be applied once to each expense.  Only one of the following credits may be used per student in any given year: American […]

Tax tips for college expenses

Most all college students are back on campus by this point but the benefits that you can receive from various tax credits will not become apparent until you pay your taxes next year. It’s important to know what tax credits you may be eligible for early on, so that you keep good records as you pay these college expenses. Recently the IRS published their Summertime Tax Tip 2012 – 25 which details tips for students and parents paying college expenses. The actual text of this tip is listed below.   Back-to-school tips for students and parents and college expenses Whether you’re a recent high school graduate going to college for the first time or a returning student, it will soon be time to head to campus, and payment deadlines for tuition and other fees are not far behind. The IRS over some tips about education tax benefits that can help […]