Stick it to the man!

Ok, not really. But instead of letting some government bureaucrat decide how to use your tax dollars, you can actually decide how to spend some of it yourself. And we would greatly appreciate it if you would direct some of those tax dollars to Ella's tuition for school next year. If you are an Arizona resident, please click on the post title to keep reading...



Dear friends and family,

It’s hard to believe that Ella will be starting Kindergarten in the fall of 2009! Seems like a long ways off yet, but it is already time to start planning. Ella will be going to Bethany Learning Center next year. Christian education is a huge priority for Paige and me. We both attended Christian schools from Kindergarten through college, at great expense to our parents. We plan to do everything we can to give our kids the same blessing. But obviously we will need to pay for tuition, and it doesn’t come cheap. Although we pay state taxes to support the public schools, we are not able to direct this tax money to educating our own kids at the school of our choice. This is where we are asking for your help.

Arizona provides a method that people can help pay for someone’s private school tuition through a tax credit. Basically, you send money to a tuition organization, the tuition organization grants the money to the student you indicate, and then you claim a dollar-for-dollar tax credit when you file your return. If you file jointly (married), you can donate up to $1000. Single filers can donate up to $500. You should also be able to take the donation as a deduction on your federal income taxes (previous statement not to be construed as tax preparation advice, consult your tax preparer, blah, blah, etc.) The Arizona tax forms to claim the credit are very simple (I do them myself every year.) The only real work you have to do is fill out the attached paperwork and send in a check (or you can even donate online.) The only issue is that you have to make sure that you do not donate more than the total Arizona income taxes that you owe (you can carry the credit forward for 5 years if this happens.)

As an example, if your AZ tax bill for the year was $1200, and you donated $1000 to the tuition organization, your tax bill would be reduced to $200 after applying the credit. If your tax bill was $800 and you donated $1000, your tax bill would be reduced to $0 (and you could claim a credit for the additional $200 next year.) If not much has changed in your tax situation from last year, you can look at your previous return to get an idea of the maximum you could donate without reducing your taxes past $0.

We have set Ella up with ACTSO. We have been donating through them to various students for about 9 years now. Unfortunately, we cannot donate to our own children (by law.) Feel free to take a look at their website for more information. The Q&A section should be able to answer any question you have. If you can’t find the answer there, please feel free to contact me and I will try to answer your questions. If you decide to donate, the check must be postmarked by December 31, 2008 in order to claim a credit on your 2008 taxes. You can either fill out the attached form and donate by check or credit card, or you can donate online at the ACSTO website.

We realize that the Christmas season isn’t typically the best time for people to spend $1000, even if you will get it back in a few months. Unfortunately that is how the program is set up due to the tax year.

We would greatly appreciate your help in paying for our children’s tuition through your tax dollars.

Sincerely,
Jason and Paige Addink

PS: If you feel comfortable, please send us a note to let us know if you decide to donate. We would just like to have some idea of what to expect for tuition next year.