A School Scholarship Tax Credit

School Scholarship Tax Credit For Indiana Residents

The new tax law made effective for 2018, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), has a number of ways it may impact your tax return for this year.  For example, you may not itemize on your tax return this year.  The standard deduction for a married filing jointly couple has risen to $24,000 and a large component of the itemized deductions may not benefit you as much as you think.  

The deduction for all state taxes paid will be limited to $10,000 (ie state income taxes, real estate taxes, personal property taxes, & general sales tax).  If you are in this situation, we have discovered another way to donate to your favorite school for a 50% state tax credit!  This helps fund participating schools & churches and ultimately gets you a state tax credit (which you may not get any tax benefit without filing a Schedule A this year).  

Indiana limits the tax credit to $14 million dollars (so $28 million of donations) in their fiscal year (July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019) but you must donate before year end to claim on your 2018 tax return.  

Here is a link to the Indiana website explaining the School Scholarship Credit more:
https://www.in.gov/dor/4305.htm 

and here is a link to the list of participating schools:
 https://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/choice/18-sgo-participating-schools-june-2018.pdf