Can I Deduct Private School Tuition on My Income Tax Return??

JC Leahy, MA Accounting

As a rule, you may NOT deduct private school tuition for grades K through 12 on your tax return and you may NOT count it as child and dependent care expense.  That's just the bottom line -- generally.

There are exceptions.  If your child's school has a before-or-after-school program, you can count those costs as child care expenses for purposes of the the child and dependent care credit -- IF the costs are necessary for both husband and wife to be able to work.


Another exception is for special-needs education.  The cost may be deducted as a MEDICAL expense if your doctor writes a prescription for the special needs education.  That means you have to itemize your deductions on a Schedule A and total medical expenses must be reduced by the 7.5 or 10 percent-of-AGI threshold.

Once you get into college tuition, it's a whole different ballgame.  Check out this link: Can I Deduct Children's School Tuition?