Skip to main content Skip to navigation

IRS Tax Benefits for Education

 

When filing your yearly income tax return, it’s important to know that there are certain tax credits and deductions that can help students and parents with expenses for higher education.

Credits
An education credit reduces the amount of tax owed on your tax return. There are two main types of education credits available to students, the American Opportunity tax credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit.
There are additional rules to each of these credits, but you must meet all three of the following criteria to qualify:

  1. You, your dependent or a third party pays qualified education expenses for higher education.
  2. An eligible student must be enrolled at an eligible educational institution.
  3. The eligible student is yourself, your spouse or a dependent you list on your tax return.

Deductions
You may be able to take qualified deductions on education expenses that you paid during the year for yourself, your spouse or your dependent. The most common are the Tuition and Fees deduction, the Student Loan Interest deduction, a Qualified Student Loan and Qualified Education Expenses. You can view the full list of deductions and information on the IRS website


SPENDING PLANS
The thought of creating a budget or “spending plan” as we like to call it, is usually a very daunting task to think about

[READ MORE]
CREDIT SCORES
Having good credit can be more important than you think. In today’s world, credit is used for more than just getting a credit card or a loan

[READ MORE]
STUDENT LOANS
Know your loans. Know your options. Know your resources

[READ MORE]
IDENTITY THEFT
As a young child my mother told me I could be anyone I wanted to be. Turns out this is identity theft

[READ MORE]
IRS TAX BENEFITS
When filing your yearly income tax return, it’s important to know that there are certain tax credits and deductions that can help students and parents

[READ MORE]
INSURANCE
Whether you’re looking at health insurance, life insurance, car insurance or renters insurance, the information can be confusing at best

[READ MORE]
INVESTING BASICS
See how investing even just $100 per month makes a difference.

[READ MORE]
COUGAR MONEY MATTERS
With the support of BECU, we’ve created this site to bring together financial resources across all our campuses for all our Cougs.

[READ MORE]