It irks me. Each year as my husband and I fill out our federal tax form, I desperately want to fill in the $250 deduction allotted full-time educators for unreimbursed, out-of-pocket educational expenses (books, supplies, equipment, etc.) on my personal income tax. I never do.
According to the Internal Revenue Service “Eligible educators include those who work at least 900 hours during a school year as a teacher, instructor, counselor, principal or aide in a public or private elementary or secondary school.”
I teach two children* – one in high school and the other in elementary school – full-time and pay for all their educational needs including textbooks, computers, software, ink, paper, scissors, pencils, pens, and so on only by squeezing it out of our family income, without compensation from anyone. Yet I am not eligible because the IRS adds an exception to the rule.
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Tags: 1040 federal tax return, costs, discrimination, educator, educator deduction, equal opportunity, federal government, federal tax, financial, home education, homeschooler, homeschoolers, Homeschooling, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, primary education, secondary education, tax, tax law, teacher, United States
