Can I Write off my School Books and Tuition on my Taxes?

Question

can school books and tuition be writen off on taxes

Answer 1

Deduction for Higher Education Expenses
Can I qualify for a deduction for college tuition I paid for myself, my spouse, or my kids? How much can I deduct?


It depends on your income. As part of its lame duck session in December 2006, Congress voted to revive this deduction, which had expired at the end of 2005. The tuition deduction — which allows qualifying taxpayers to deduct $2,000 or $4,000 of qualifying tuition expenses — is on the books for 2006 and 2007. The deduction helps subsidize post-high school education expenses you pay for you, your spouse, or your dependents. Before you use this deduction, however, check out the two tax credits available for college tuition. They have stricter income limits to qualify, but the credits are more valuable, reducing your taxes dollar-for-dollar compared with a tax deduction that merely reduces the amount of income subject to tax. Most people should claim the tuition deduction only if their income is too high to qualify for the Hope Credit or the Lifetime Learning credit.

Four great things about the tuition deduction:

This deduction is above the line, which means it reduces your adjusted gross income (AGI) Officially known as an adjustment to income, you get to subtract above-the-line deductions to arrive at your AGI. That's important since reducing your AGI may preserve tax deductions and credits that might otherwise be phased out (reduced) or eliminated at higher levels. This also means you get the benefit of this write-off even if you don't itemize deductions.
This is a stand-alone tax break. Your expenses don't have to total a certain amount before you can take the deduction. (For example, you can take this deduction even if the expenses do not add up to more than two percent of your adjusted gross income as required for "miscellaneous deductions.")
The deduction isn't affected by the overall limitation on itemized deductions.
To qualify for the tuition deduction, you can study whatever you want, except sports, games, and hobbies; and you can even study those if the classes are part of a degree program.
In this article, we answer the following questions about this deduction:

When can I take this deduction?
Which expenses qualify?
Which expenses do not qualify?
Who qualifies?
How much can I deduct?


When Can I Take This Deduction?
The deduction is available for qualifying expenses paid in 2006 in connection with:

Enrollment during the year, or
An academic term beginning during the year or the first three months of the following year. In other words, if you paid tuition in December 2006 for a class that begins in January, February, or March of 2007, the cost is included when figuring your 2006 deduction.


Which Expenses Qualify?
Whatever you pay in tuition or fees to enroll in or attend any accredited public, private (nonprofit), or proprietary institution above the high-school level.

Basically, whatever you pay for most college and vocational classes should qualify.



Which Expenses Do Not Qualify?
You cannot take a deduction for amounts paid for:

Room and board, insurance, medical expense (including student health fees), transportation, or other similar personal, living, or family expenses
Course-related books, supplies, equipment, and nonacademic activities, except for fees required to be paid to the institution as a condition of enrollment or attendance
Any course involving sports, games, or hobbies, unless such course is part of the student's degree program
Also, once you figure out all of your qualified expenses, you must subtract any scholarships, educational assistance allowances, or other nontaxable sources of income spent for educational purposes (other than gifts and inheritances). If your employer offers a tuition reimbursement plan as a fringe benefit that pays $1,000 of the cost of a $1,500 course you take, for example, only the remaining $500 would count for purposes of this deduction.



Who Qualifies?
Qualified expenses you pay for yourself, your spouse, or your dependents are eligible for the deduction.

Exceptions:

If you can be claimed as a dependent on someone's (such as your parent's) tax return, you cannot claim the higher education deduction.
If you are married and choose the married filing separately tax status, you cannot take this deduction.


How Much Can I Deduct?
For 2006 the top deduction is either $2,000 or $4,000 depending on your adjusted gross income.

If your adjusted gross income is $65,000 or less ($130,000 or less with a joint return), your maximum deduction is $4,000.
If your adjusted gross income is between $65,001 and $80,000 (between $130,001 and $160,000 with a joint return), your maximum deduction is $2,000.
If your adjusted gross income exceeds these limits, you don't get any deduction.
Unlike many tax breaks that are gradually phased out as income rises above a threshold amount, this deduction is cut in half, then ends abruptly as AGI passes the set levels.

Tuition is a yes, but books are generally a no, unless you have to buy the book in order to take a class.

Answer 2

Post-secondary education qualifies for credits or tuition deductions. The Hope Credit or Lifetime Learning Credit or limited tuition deductions are available. Books cannot be deducted, however.

Answer 3

For education credits, not your books. But tuition and fees can be used to figure a Hope or Lifetime Learning credit if you are not a dependent. If you are a dependent, then the credit goes to your parents if you are their dependent.

Answer 4

in case you obtain a scholarship to your college costs, then you definately can deduct from that scholarship the quantity of the scholarship spent on training, books, factors, and kit mandatory to your classes to reach on the quantity of your taxable scholarship earnings. The taxable scholarship earnings is then blended with your different wages on the wages line of your tax return. Richard ok grasp Tax consultant this suggestion replaced into based upon my information of the tax regulation in result on the time it replaced into written because it applies to the data presented by skill of you. See my profile for greater suggestions.

Answer 5

I think only if they invole classes for needed training in a current job they can be written off then and only then