It's time for parents to load up shopping carts with glue sticks, spiral notebooks and No. 2 pencils. In the bustle of back-to-school shopping, the state is reminding families to save those receipts: They could add up to hundreds of dollars of savings on state tax returns.
Both the K-12 education credit for limited incomes and the unrestricted K-12 education subtraction cut down the taxes parents pay and could give them heftier refunds when it's time to file their 2017 Minnesota income tax returns, the state Revenue Department said in a Monday release.
Generally, expenses qualifying for either the credit or the subtraction include mandatory materials used during a regular school day, computer hardware and instructor costs for "enrichment classes or instruction" not part of the regular school day, according to a tax fact sheet.
More than 43,000 families received the K-12 education credit last year for an average savings of $242, the Revenue Department said in its release, and more than 199,000 families used the K-12 education subtraction.
Check the Revenue Department's website for credit and subtraction eligibility.
BEENA RAGHAVENDRAN
