Broadly, no. Congress hasn't created any benefits or deductions for home schooling.
There is one minor possibility to get some benefits.
You may have heard of Qualified Tuition Plans ("529" plans). If you establish a QTP with your child as beneficiary, money that you contribute is not deductible on your federal return, but may be deductible on your state return. However, the money can grow (interest or invested) tax-free, and is tax-free if you withdraw it to pay for qualified expenses. Qualified expenses used to include college tuition and other expenses, but a recent change expanded the definition of qualified expenses to include up to $10,000 of private school tuition only (related expenses are not allowed). (Also, some states tax withdrawals for K-12 school.). In other words:
| |
Federal |
State |
| Contributions |
Not deductible |
Deductible |
| Withdrawals |
Tax-free for qualified higher education expenses and up to $10,000 in K-12 tuition |
Tax-free for qualified higher education expenses, tax-free in some states for K-12 tuition |
What does this have to do with home schooling? Sometimes, home schooling parents will pay for various programs to expose their kids to things that they can't teach themselves, co-ops and such. If you pay tuition to a qualified K-12 school (either public or private) for these kinds of experiences, that could possibly qualify to be paid from a 529 plan, and that would get you a bit of a tax discount. (The 529 plan can also be used to invest for eventual college or private high school tuition, of course.)
But I can't think of anything else that could be stretched to cover home schooling.
