Claim Tax Relief on Third Level Education Tuition Fees for the Academic Year 2011 – 2012

Tax Relief in respect of Tuitions fees for Third Level Education

As many students commence study at this time, it’s worth considering if you can claim tax relief on Third Level education fees for yourself or anyone for whom you pay third level fees.  Relief is available at the standard rate of tax (currently 20%) subject to a maximum limit of €7,000 for the academic year 2011- 2012.

For 2011 and subsequent years, the first €2,000 of any claim is disregarded for relief where the student is studying full time or by €1,000 where the student is studying on a part-time basis.  From this academic year, 2011 – 2012, the relief is allowable in respect of tuition fees including the Student Contribution.  Relief is not available in respect of registration, administration or examination fees or any part of the fee that is, or will be met by grants, scholarships, by an employer or so on.

Relief is available per student, per course, per academic year so if you are paying college fees for more than one student in this academic year, you may claim relief in respect of the fees paid for each person.

Further details of this tax relief is available from the Revenue Information Leaftlet IT31 and a list of approved colleges and courses is available on the Revenue Website at  http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/reliefs/tuition-fees.html#section6

Relief can be claimed on individuals tax returns at the end of the tax year or during the year once fees have been paid and the relief can be granted on a tax credit certificate.  You can apply for the relief by completing the application form at http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/forms/it31-form.pdf

Details of any payments received or to be received towards the fees must accompany the claim.  You should retain all receipts regarding the claim for tuition fees for a period of 6 years as they may be requested for verification at a later date.