Rising tuition fees are an unavoidable part of the academic life. While tuition fees are generally not refundable, there are a number of options available to parents built to help lower the cost of tuition fees. All or a portion of tuition fees may fall under child care costs, charitable donations, or medical or physical impairments. Below you will find a brief description of each.
Child Care Costs
These costs may be a deduction from income that private elementary school fees may fall under.
Deductable costs in this area all relate to the parent or parents’ ability to earn employment income, carry on research for which a grant has been issued, attend an educational institution for more than 3 weeks or run a business.
Eligible child care services include day-care, day camps, day sports, private schools, overnight camps or school, day nursery, individual child care services or boarding schools.
This means that if your child’s schooling allows you to continue any of these employment related activities, the tuition costs may be a deduction.
Charitable Donations
If you do not qualify for this type of deduction, you may be able to consider the tuition as a charitable donation which may entitle you to a ‘charitable donation tax credit.’ There are two types of institutions that are able to provide you with a receipt for a charitable donation:
· Institutions that exclusively teach religion
· Institutions that provide both academic and religious education
Mental or Physical Impairments
If your child lives with a mental or physical impairment, you may be able to receive a ‘medical expense tax credit. A medical practitioner must be able to provide documentation which states that a child is in need of the equipment, facilities or personnel at the institution.
Although the bill stating the need for these documents from a medical practitioner has not yet been enacted, it is expected to be reintroduced.
Other Ways to Save
· Private schools may offer scholarships to their students. You can find out which schools do offer them by searching out the school you have in mind and inquiring. It is best to start close to home and work your way out when seeking out scholarships.
· Your family, including extended family, may belong to organizations that give away scholarships on an annual basis. It is worth asking the people in your family what organizations they belong to and if there are scholarships available for students.
Fighting the rising tuition costs will take some effort, but there are many routes out there a parent can take to ease any financial strain they may feel.