Parents should ‘keep their receipts’ for education expenses in light of the proposed commencement of the Education Tax Refund from 1 July 2008. Under the ETR, eligible families will be able to claim:
? a 50 per cent refundable tax offset every year for up to $750 for each child undertaking primary school, (that is, a refund of up to $375 per child, per year);
? a 50 per cent refundable tax offset every year for up to $1,500 for each child undertaking secondary school (that is, a refund of up to $750 per child, per year).
Generally, you are entitled to the ETR if you get Family Tax Benefit (Part A) for the child you wish to claim for. Also, eligibility is extended to parents who would be entitled to FTB Part A but for the fact the child receives other payments such as Youth Allowance.
The refundable tax offset will apply to expenses incurred from 1 July 2008 and will be claimed upon lodgement of a 2008–09 income tax return.
Eligible families will be able to recoup the cost of purchases including:
· laptops;
· home computers and associated costs;
· home internet connection;
· printers;
· education software;
· trade tools for use at school;
· school text books; and stationery.
Eligible expenses are for items that support a child during school and improve the quality of education.
You can download an ETR Fact Sheet from the Treasury website at this page or simply email me (christie at lewistaxation.com.au) and I’ll email one off to you.
Article by Christie Lewis
Christie is Practice Manager at Alan Lewis Accountants . Besides accounting, her passion is for all things small business (and blogging, of course). You can contact Christie directly at christie@lewistaxation.com.au.
Christie has written 811 awesome articles for us at Alan Lewis Accountants – BLOG
Twitter: @christielewis | Facebook
{ 1 trackback }