If the clerk at the cash register asks if you want your receipt during your back-to-school shopping trips, the answer is “Yes”! An enthusiastic “Yes”! They could make a difference on your 2016 Minnesota tax return.
Expenses paid for pencils, pens, paper and notebooks, educational computer software, required gym clothes – almost anything used by your children in elementary or high school for education during the school day – at least can lower your income. Families with limited incomes often can qualify for a tax credit, which reduces taxes directly.
Actually, it’s not only those shopping trip expenses. Fees for all-day kindergarten, private school tuition, individualized music lessons away from school, tutoring by qualified teachers (outside your family), summer school expenses and driver’s education (conducted within the normal school day only) can qualify.
Many costs of a home computers also are eligible, provided the computer is not used for business. The cap generally is $200 per family, but it could range up to $400 in specific circumstances.
By the way, home schoolers also can qualify for most of the expenses. But textbooks and other materials purchased must be “non-religious” to qualify.
The tax break generally ends with the school day.. Fees for extracurricular activities are excluded. For example, don’t try to claim the costs of band uniforms or sports gear, even if the teams are fielded by the school.
All that said, most Minnesota taxpayers with children in kindergarten, elementary school or high school, can qualify for either a tax credit or an income subtraction. Last year, more than 46,000 families received the tax credit, and another 198,000 benefitted from the subtraction, Minnesota Revenue reports.
Want more details? See Minnesota Fact Sheet 8 about the K-12 Education Subtraction and Credit, which is available online from Minnesota Revenue’s Web site, www.revenue.state.mn.us Likewise, Fact Sheet 8a goes into more detail about the education tax breaks for home-schooled students.Or, maybe you’d like to see the video about the education tax credit at https://youtu.be/MkdLO8WruE4
Finally, if you’re visiting the upcoming Minnesota State Fair, stop at the Minnesota Revenue booth in the Education Building. Agency reps are giving away special envelopes to hold those school supply receipts for a few months until they’re needed at tax time.