For each child that you have in Primary or Secondary school (up to the age of 25) you can claim your expenses on the following items:

• computers and laptops and the expense in repairing them and updating them;
• software to run on the computers – this includes word, excel, power point, adobe and virus protection;
• devices used for the computer – USB keys, DVDs, CDs, external hard drives – to save information on and do backups;
• internet connection, including the setup costs (modem) – this is usually on a pro-rata basis.  For example it may be 50 for home and 50 for school.  To can work out the amount by hours on the computer for each person or perhaps by the bytes used to download the different information.
• school textbooks (hire or purchase), stationery (pencils, pens, folders, ruler, stapler, nikko pens, scissors, glue, rubber bands, display books, art books, etc), writing books and any other book you have purchased for your child to use at school.
• Tools of trade – this could be tools purchased by your child if they are doing a school based apprenticeship and needed a hammer or likewise.

It is important to note that if you are claiming the expense on your tax return or you have been reimbursed for it by other means (government grant) you cannot claim it on this Educational Tax Refund (ETR).  So you should decide which is the better means of claiming it – through your tax (usually 20-30% refunded) or through the ETR (50% refunded).

Unfortunately you cannot claim the following:

• school fees – including subject levies (for example the $10 you may have to pay for home economics);
• school uniforms;
• school excursions;
• sporting equipment;
• music instruments;
• tutoring;
• library book fees (including late/lost fees and the fee to bring them into the library);
• bus fares;
• donations and building levies (but these can be tax deductible on your income tax return);
• school photos;
• any membership fees (these may also be a tax deduction on your income tax return).

Make sure when you are collecting your receipts that they are dated from 01 July 2008 to 30 June 2009, and if possible don’t forget any as the tax office won’t allow you to claim forgotten receipts later (even though you can rollover money you spent above the limit – $750 for primary & $1,500 for high school)

You can claim the Education Tax Refund if the following applies to you:

• the Family Tax Benefit Part A was received by you for your children that are attending school (primary and secondary only, not tertiary). Basically if you and your partner are receiving under $100,000 combined income you are entitled to Family Tax Benefit Part A;
• you are caring for the child/ren for more than 35% of the time (that’s 4.2 months or 128 days a year);
• you stopped receiving FTB Part A because your child left school and earned too much money; or
• you were an independent student under 25 years old (which means you were probably on Austudy and had no other jobs).

Just remember that if your child only attended for one day of the year you are entitled to a full 6 months of rebate.

For example:

Lisa finished Grade 12 at the end of 2008 and started Uni in 2009.  She is entitled to receive 184 days of the rebate as she was at secondary school for the period (01 July 2008 to 31 December 2008).

Charlotte started Prep in 2009.  Her mother is entitled to 181 days of the rebate (01 January 2009 to 30 June 2009).

It would be good to point out that if you have a student that is going into Uni next year that they purchase any laptops, etc they will need for uni in the period July to December 2009.  That way they can claim the ETR for their secondary studies!!  Providing they do not earn over $12,287 for the year.

We have all heard about the new Educational tax refund that the Australian government is offering but how do you claim?

Obviously the first thing you must do if you want to claim expenses with the education tax rebate is to keep receipts of all your eligible purchases. Then at tax time, parents can simply claim the refund when they complete their 2008-09 income tax return.

Here is screenshot from a tax return for individuals for 2009. The education tax refund section will be located under the heading of tax offsets. After you have calculated your claim amount you can enter it into the L section shown below.

You can download a copy of this form from the Australian tax department. Tax return for individuals 2009

What time period can you claim for?

You can start keeping receipts for eligible incurred expenses from July 1st 2008.

What form do I fill out to claim to education tax rebate when I am not lodging a tax return

You can still claim the education tax refund even though you are not going to lodge a tax return.  Of course as long as you are eligible for this refund, you simply fill out a form and either send it to the ATO or drop it into one of their shop fronts.

Download the ETR claim form

How do you calculate your education tax refund?

Well this is something that everyone wants to know. It may look easy from the outset, but believe me it can get very difficult.  I found this Education Tax Refund calculator on the ATO website. You would think that working out 50% of something was easy, but in this case its not. For example what if your child was in primary school in 2008 and secondary school in 2009? You would have to do two separate calculations by splitting the amount of days spent at each school.

E-tax online

If you use E-tax to do your tax return online it is so easy to fill in the education tax refund section. You will not have to calculate anything at all. You just fill in the details required, which is not much at all, and then it will be calculated for you. It even calculates what amount you can rollover to the next year. I was shocked at how easy it was.

Who is eligible for this education tax refund?

• If you care for a child that attends either primary or secondary school.
• If you receive FTB (family tax benefit) part A.

Here are some more links with detailed information.

http://www.educationtaxrefund.gov.au/am-i-eligible/

www.familyassist.gov.au

What can you claim on the education tax refund?

• laptop computers and home computers
• computer-related equipment such as printers, USB flash drives, as well as disability aids to assist in the use of computer equipment for students with special needs
• computer repairs
• home internet connections
• computer software for educational use
• school textbooks and other printed learning material, including prescribed textbooks, associated learning materials, study guides and stationery, and
• prescribed trade tools for secondary school trade courses.

More information below..

http://www.educationtaxrefund.gov.au/what-can-i-claim/#EligibleEducationExpense

School uniforms are not included.

Examples of what you can buy to get up to 50% back on the education tax refund:

• You can buy your child a laptop or a desktop computer.
• You can buy a printer, usb stick, printer paper, printer ink.
• Prescribe school books.
• Educational software.

What can you claim for a primary school student?

You can claim up to $375 for a primary school student.

What can you claim for a secondary school student?

You can claim up to $750 for a secondary school student…Therefore in order to claim up to $750 you will need at least $1500 worth of buying receipts.

Make sure you keep all of your educational reciepts. Even if you replace a pencil case, rubbers, books, keep them all…