Traditional nonprofit public and private colleges and universities historically have been granted tax-exempt status. This permits them to devote more of their resources to funding student financial aid, educational activities, academic research, and community programs to achieve their core missions of teaching, research, and public service.
In addition, the Federal Tax Code contains a number of provisions directed specifically at students and families, including various tax credits and deductions, that help make college more affordable and thus encourage greater access to and participation in higher education.
Higher education associations, write to House and Senate members to urge them to include extensions of the above-the-line deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses (tuition deduction) and the Individual Retirement Account (IRA) Charitable Rollover in any tax extenders legislation that is enacted this year (2014).
Expired & Expiring Tax Provisions Important to Research Universities.
The following backgrounder is about Internal Revenue Code Section 222 where the qualified tuition and related higher education expenses deduction allows students or parents to deduct up to $4,000 in qualified higher education expenses from their taxable income.
The following comments are on several tax provisions which are important to college students and their families.
The following testimony is for the record submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the Committee on Ways and Means for the April 26, 2012 hearing on Certain Expiring Tax Provisions.