Personal Finance: Ask the Experts: Are there tax breaks for sending a child to private school?

Personal Finance: Ask the Experts

Get advice on money matters from The Bee's Claudia Buck and a panel of local experts

November 17, 2012

Are there tax breaks for sending a child to private school?

Q: Both my wife and I have to commute to different areas everyday for work and it makes it impossible for my daughter to go to the public school we are zoned for. We send her to a private elementary school near where my wife works. Is there any tax breaks we can use from having to send our child to a private school because of our work locations?

Thank you for your help,

Jared
Sacramento

A: While there a various federal tax breaks for education, none appear to apply to this situation. The decision to send your child to a private school, as opposed to a public school, is a personal decision as opposed to one that is "ordinary and necessary" to one's trade or business. Expenses that are personal in nature, such as expenses related to the education of your child, are personal and nondeductible.

Even though your decision to send your child to a private school is influenced by your commute to work, that fact does not make otherwise personal expenses deductible. None of the education related credits would apply to private school tuition or related costs unless they are for postsecondary (after high school) education.

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Claudia Buck is The Sacramento Bee's personal finance columnist. Read all her columns here. Contact her at cbuck@sacbee.com

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