Foreign Exchange student deduction

[hh2o]

When claiming the $50 credit, for food and transportation, do I enter the $50 in the Money category?

[GeoffreyG · Accepted solution]

We would recommend against reporting $50 per month in the Money / Cash charitable contributions section of the interview.  Instead, please continue reading this post for a more complete answer.

If the foreign exchange student was formally placed with you through a government agency or some non-profit organization, then you can claim up to $50 per month as a charitable donation deduction.

For more details on this, please read IRS Publication 526 (2016), Page 4 here (Topic:  Expenses Paid for Student Living With You); and also Page 19 (Topic:  How to Report Expenses for Student Living with You).

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf

That said, following those IRS instructions literally would mean that you would have to print and paper file your tax return, in order to include all of those attachments (the uploading and attaching of such documentation is not supported in the TurboTax software).

One good alternative though, and which would allow you to still e-file, would be to save all of those documents (again, please see Page 19 of Pub. 526) for your permanent taxpayer records, and then enter the $50 per month in the Charitable Donations section of the program as "Items" (not cash).  You would want to keep the relevant papers (or digital copies of them) in the unlikely event that the IRS ever asked to see them.

You could then follow the data entry example laid out in the screen-capture images found directly beneath this text (simply click the pictures to open).  Note that your program may appear slightly different, depending on your version of TurboTax . . . but you'll get the general idea from the images.

If you have further questions, encounter any difficulties with data entry, or just want to speak with a live tax expert who can walk you through your TurboTax program (including the ability to screen-share with your computer), please feel free to contact us.  We would be happy to help you (and as a paying customer, the call is free to you).  Here is a link where you can create a support ticket and reach us:

https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact/

Thank you for asking this question.

[monzellia]

These screen shots are very helpful.  However, it doesn't not continue on to show how to report multiple months of hosting.  It does not show how to report multiple months of food/entertainment/etc. expenses.  This is where I'm stuck.

[freed1921]

Hi - Is the $50/month deduction the only deduction we can take for the exchange student we are hosting?  We have taken her on 4 one day trips to Milwaukee and Chicago and 1 three day trip to Chicago. All of these trips have had an educational purpose. -We will be doing the same with a trip to NYC in three weeks.  All of these trips cost us considerably more than $100.  The Chicago trip cost over $700. The NYC trip will much more than that. 

Bruce Kahn

Madison, WI