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Unfortunately, the educator expense deduction doesn’t apply to homeschooling instructors, or any college professor or instructor in post-secondary learning environments. You can claim the educator expense deduction on line 11 of Schedule 1 (Form 1040), https://turbo-tax.org/ Additional Income and Adjustments to Income. Attach Schedule 1 to Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR. If your expenses exceed $250, you used to treat the amount over that as unreimbursed employee expenses—if the money spent exceeded 2% of your AGI.
Compensation may factor into how and where products appear on our platform (and in what order). But since we generally make money when you find an offer you like and get, we try to show you offers we think are a good match for you. That’s why we provide features like your Approval Odds and savings estimates.
Topic No. 458, Educator Expense Deduction
The educator expense deduction may not come close to how much of your own money you spend on your students and classroom every year. But if you qualify for it, there’s no reason not to take advantage of the deduction. Your AGI helps determine whether you qualify for certain tax deductions and credits. Your taxable income, on the other hand, is the figure the IRS uses to determine your tax rate and how much you may owe. Generally, to deduct these expenses, they must be unreimbursed, unless the employer included reimbursement in the employee’s taxable income.
The IRS encourages teachers to consider using tax software or consult a tax professional to help guide them through the process of claiming the deduction. The deduction is only available to qualified educators who meet certain requirements for the tax year for which they’re filing. Specifically, you need to be a K–12 teacher, instructor, counselor, principal or aide for at least 900 hours during the school year.
A Closer Look at the Educator Expense Deduction
Classroom decorations, books, supplemental learning materials, party supplies and occasional sweet treats are common classroom expenses for K-12 instructors. Also, your school must provide elementary or secondary education as determined under your state’s law. Our certified public accountants are respected financial advisors with two conveniently located offices in Harris and Montgomery counties and more than 90 years combined experience. Please contact us today to discuss your unique accounting, business, or tax preparation needs. The benefits of year-round tax planning and preparation cannot be overstated. For example, a Houston CPA firm can help you understand recent tax changes and identify which deductions you may qualify for to potentially maximize your refunds and minimize any liabilities.
Christina Taylor is senior manager of tax operations for Credit Karma. She has more than a dozen years of experience in tax, accounting and business operations. Christina founded her own accounting consultancy and managed it for more than six https://turbo-tax.org/topic-no-458-educator-expense-deduction-2020/ years. She codeveloped an online DIY tax-preparation product, serving as chief operating officer for seven years. Depending on the nature of your classroom and out-of-pocket expenses, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to deduct everything.
What is the Educator Expense Deduction?
All of the deductions described above can be claimed by a taxpayer on their Massachusetts return regardless of whether the taxpayer has itemized deductions on their federal return. Massachusetts will not conform to changes enacted after January 1, 2022 to these federal deductions allowed under Code § 62(a)(2). Keep in mind, that as an educator, each educator will be able to claim the first $250 on the federal return as the educator expense deduction. You can claim your educator expense deduction when calculating your adjusted gross income. Eligible taxpayers can claim this deduction when they file their taxes.
If you were an eligible educator in 2021, you can deduct up to $250 of qualified expenses that you paid in 2021. If you and your spouse file jointly and are both eligible educators, you can deduct up to $500 (but not more than $250 each). Teachers don’t spend money out of their own pocket for the tax benefits; they do it for their students.
That deduction went away with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. Deductions for expenses that are disallowed for tax years 2018 through 2025 are not so disallowed if they are also impairment-related business expenses. Go to IRS Form 2106 and IRS Publication 463 for what qualifies as an impairment-related business expense. My co-worker is a speech therapist and has the same question.
For additional information regarding the deduction for certain expenses of an eligible educator, see the Instructions for Form 1040 (and Form 1040-SR)PDF or the Instructions for Form 1040-NRPDF. Both the Internal Revenue Code and Illinois statutes refer to the 900-hour requirement as being in a “school year” and not a “calendar year,” which is how almost everyone files their tax return. But I guess my specific question is in 2019 I just started back up teaching. I only worked, say 500 hours, but my annualized number of hours is in excess of 900. Can I take the deduction in 2019 even though the number of hours in the calendar year 2019 was less than 900, but the annualized number of hours for a full school year is in excess of 900. I took a couple of years off and started teaching full time again in August 2019.
Educator Expense Deduction
It’s important to keep track of your expenses long before you file your return, so you don’t have to scramble at tax time. Also, hold on to your receipts in case your accountant or the IRS wants to check your work. The sweeping 2017 tax reform bill made a lot of changes, and Congress did consider altering the educator expense deduction. The average public school teacher salary for the 2017 to 2018 school year was around $60,483, the National Education Association estimates. Meanwhile, a whopping 94% of public school teachers spent an average of $479 of their own money for their classrooms during the 2014 to 2015 school year, according to a 2018 study by the U.S.
This tax break can effectively reduce your adjusted gross income, or AGI. Not every educator and expense is eligible for the deduction, however, so it’s important to know what the tax code says. The deduction is $500 if both taxpayers are eligible educators and file their return using the status married filing jointly.
