Are there any tax breaks for homeschooling?

Question

Is there any tax breaks, like deductions for classes or curric. that you can claim on your federal taxes if you home school your children?

Answer 1

Some states, mainly Minnesota & Illinois, have *state* tax credits for educational expenses.  In Illinois, it's for *any* public, private, or homeschool expenses (HS's are considered private schools).

Here is an article at HSLDA about education tax credits:

http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/20...

We're in IL and we were able to claim the tax credit last year (and will do so for '07 taxes) and it reduced our state tax bill by $247.  We can only deduct certain expenses:

http://revenue.state.il.us/Publications/...

http://www.revenue.state.il.us/TaxForms/...

So yes, in some places there are credits.  But typically it's all on the parents to provide all the resources.

Answer 2

Nope, and I hope there never will be.

One of the reasons we have the freedoms in home schooling that we have today is because we have no strings/rules attached to any funding, or tax credits.

Funding, or tax credits come with a price; no thank you.

Answer 3

No.

But there is the opposite in the form of income tax and mostly property tax to support the public school system.

No tax break for homeschoolers.

Answer 4

Only if your state has manditory requirements.

Answer 5

Sadly, no.  We get to pay thousands of dollars a year to support schools that our kids don't attend, pay good money for our own kids' curricula, and put the time and energy into teaching them ourselves and/or locating instructors, college classes, and mentors for them.

However, the non-monetary benefits we get from homeschooling more than make up for it - and by and large, our kids agree :-)

Answer 6

No, and most homeschoolers I know do not EVER want them. With government money comes strings and red tape - they can keep the money and I'll avoid the red tape!

Answer 7

Nope....yet we're forced to support financially an institution in which we lack trust.

Oh well. price we pay, I guess.

Answer 8

No tax breaks. You still get to pay for the public schools, but no tax break for you.