The next installment for my daughter’s private school tuition is due in about a month. We pay approximately $10,000 per year. It sounds steep, sure, but we are also the recipient of fairly low real estate taxes in Philadelphia. My friends across the river pay about $5,000 to 7,000 more in real estate taxes than I do, for about the same size house. So, in theory, for one child, the expenses are about equal, right? Not really. My friends in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, can deduct the cost of their real estate taxes and increased interest due to a higher mortgage (houses tend to cost more across the river) on their federal income tax returns. I cannot, however, deduct the cost of private cost tuition. This is a puzzlement to me. The federal government will basically subsidize my move to the suburbs in the form of a nice deduction for increased costs but will not allow me to deduct the cost of educating my child at a private or parochial school.
Similarly, if, instead of Pre-K (my daughter is currently 4-1/2), we decided to put her in daycare fulltime, that would be deductible as “childcare expenses” but not as education. Hmm. Where are our priorities?
So, today’s Fix the Tax Code Friday question is:
Should private and parochial school tuition be deductible on an individual tax return?
