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School Tax Credit and FACTS
An Editorial by Joe Bodin, President of Flagstaff Central.com,
Inc.
~ April 2007 ~ |
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While preparing
my yearly taxes I came across a
scenario that I think would be
beneficial for the Flagstaff
public to hear and know more
about. As you are probably well
aware, you can give money to a
school and then receive the School
Tax Credit right back on your
taxes. It's a great way to raise
money for the schools!!
What you probably aren't aware of
is that the FACTS program (after
school program) "does qualify" as
having paid the school towards a
School Tax Credit. Most of the
hard working families who have to
have their kids in an after school
program are "not aware" of this at
all, nor does the school system do
anything to inform them of this.
Most of the families who use this
service could qualify for the
School Tax Credit and get $200 to
$400 back off their taxes without
paying another dime (since they
already paid it as part of their
FACTS payments). And, the school
system would be able to tabulate
those amounts into the money that
was raised and look even better
for it too.
The problem is that the schools
and FACTS programs didn't set up a
system for this, and now there is
some legal issues as to whether or
not the payments made to the FACTS
program really do qualify.
According to FUSD's website, FACTS
is listed as a General
Extracurricular Activity that does
qualify for the tax credit. (Click
here for more info).
But, the problem is that most
people pay the FACTS program
directly. This is "not paying the
individual school" but the general
FACTS program. Thus, it doesn't
qualify because it has not been
tracked by the school system as a
payment for the Tax Credit to a
specific school program.
We (my wife) recently wrote the
school system to ask them to
clarify, and we heard back from
Ernestine Ruiz who runs the School
Tax Credit program. Here is her
response: |
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| "We
have just recently decided
on a procedure for parents
to claim Tax Credit for
FACTS fees. Check should be
written to school and attach
a note requesting Tax Credit
to check when you give
school a payment. This check
will be sent to our District
Main office and a Tax Credit
receipt will be mailed to
you. School will probably
not be aware of this
procedure (I'm not sure if
FACTS office here has
informed schools) so just be
sure to tell them to send a
note with check. If you have
problems or questions,
please call Nina (main FACTS
office) at 527-6175." |
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In my
estimation, this seems like a
circular issue. She is proposing
that you write the check to the
school (not FACTS) with "a note",
it then must be sent by the FACTS
staff to the District Office, they
file for your Tax Credit and send
you a receipt, and then the money
has to go back to FACTS to be
tracked as a payment. My guess is
that this isn't going to work and
that something is going to get
lost (either your receipt or the
actual payment tracking on your
schools FACTS computer). It also
seems like this is going to cost
us all in paperwork that is
unnecessary.
And, here's the big issue, does
this years payments (2006) for
FACTS count? If you didn't go
through all this but paid FACTS
directly (and should qualify), can
you claim it on your taxes? If the
taxpayer and FACTS parent thought
they could claim it, but the
district didn't have a system
setup to track it, who is liable
if the state doesn't agree?
I thought this would be helpful in
getting the word out. It doesn't
completely solve it for this past
year, but if parents know the
process then they can do it
correctly for 2007!!! Please
tell everyone...
Smiles,
Joe Bodin,
President
Flagstaff Central.com, Inc. |
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