Education tax refund

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You can claim the education tax refund only if you meet one of the following conditions:

1. you were entitled to receive family tax benefit (FTB) Part A for a child undertaking primary or secondary studies
2. a child undertaking primary or secondary studies was not your 'FTB child' because certain payments were paid for the child
3. you would have met condition 1 or 2 if your child had not stopped school and earned too much income, or
4. you were an independent student under 25 years old undertaking primary or secondary studies.

The words printed in bold are explained in Explanation of terms.

You may be eligible for the education tax refund (ETR) if you, or your partner, incurred eligible education expenses between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2011 for the primary or secondary school studies (at school, home or TAFE) of:

• a child, or
• yourself, if you were an independent student under 25 years old undertaking primary or secondary studies.

For you to be eligible to claim the ETR for an expense for a student, the expense must be an eligible education expense, and when the expense was incurred:

• you must have met one of the four conditions, and
• the student must have met the schooling requirement.

If you have eligible education expenses that you could not claim last year (because they exceeded last year's limit) you may claim them this year provided you are still eligible to claim the ETR this year. The amount of the excess eligible expenses is the amount that you worked out last year at step 8 of the education tax offset calculation. You should have a record of this amount.

Do you need to lodge a tax return for 2010-11?

Yes	Claim the ETR on your Tax return for individuals 2011 (NAT 2541).
No	Read below.

Do you want to claim the ETR?

No	You don't need to read this publication.
Yes	Read on.