Tax Deduction for Landmark College

[tsasaki]

Are there any parents with students attending Landmark College who have taken the medical tax deductions on their taxes? Our CPA says we cannot take the deduction? He says our son has to be severely learning disabled.

[healthy11]

tsasaki, welcome to Millermom's forum. There HAVE been other parents who successfully took IRS medical deductions for special education school tuition, but everyone's educational and financial situation is different. My understanding is that if you have a medical doctor's statement that indicates a special school is recommended for your son, then that should allow you to proceed. I do not believe there is any IRS requirement that describes or limits which types of disabilities or the severity of the difficulties. Your family income level must be considered before medical deductions can be taken, in any case.

www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf
www.irs.gov/uac/Tax-Benefits-for-Education-Information-Center
Revenue Ruling 69-607, IRB 1969-49, 13
The IRS has privately ruled that tuition and travel can be a medical expense if the school is approved and only accepts students who need special assistance.
www.ldaamerica.us/aboutld/parents/help/expenses.asp

[bros]

You can take it as long as a doctor says it is medically necessary.

You can deduct the tuition as long as it exceeds 7.5% of your AGI

lets say 7.5% of your AGI is 10k a year and Landmark is 50k a year and you are paying all of it.

You can deduct 40k in medical expenses.

[dwolen]

I responded to your PM.
Your CPA must be misinformed.

[tsasaki]

Thanks to all who responded. I have done a lot of research. I have a letter diagnosing his disorder and saying Landmark College would provide needed support. I hope to convince our CPA. It would help tremendously.

[healthy11]

You shouldn't have to convince your accountant. If I were you, I'd recommend finding a different CPA.

[vp4]

Since I am in a similar boat, how is a doctor qualified to make such judgement? Isn't an educational psychologist more qualified?

[bros]

Feb 28, 2013 18:59:07 GMT -5 vp4 said:

Since I am in a similar boat, how is a doctor qualified to make such judgement? Isn't an educational psychologist more qualified?

A psychiatrist, psychologist, or neuropsych could also make a judgement and be more qualified than most to make one, imo.

[majorv]

I can see why the CPA might be hesitant to do it. Under the special education section of eligible Medical Expenses you can deduct tuition, meals & lodging, if recommended by a doctor, to help the person overcome their learning disabilities. The part that would make me stop and do more research on it is the part that says...

"Overcoming the learning disabilities must be a principal reason for attending the school, and any ordinary education received must be incidental to the special education provided."

If the person ultimately receives a degree then it might be harder to prove that the "ordinary education" was incidental. Education tax credits might also be available.

[healthy11]

I don't think it would be a problem at a school like Landmark, which serves only students with special ed needs.

Things become murky when parents send their kids to private schools that also serve neurotypical students...Compared to public schools, private schools may provide smaller class sizes/more individualized attention, even resource room tutoring, etc., and all of those things can benefit students with learning disabilities, but it's harder to argue that the principal reason for attending an ordinary private school is to overcome LDs.

[bros]

www.landmark.edu/admissions/tuition-and-financial-aid/making-landmark-affordable/

www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p907.pdf

www.landmark.edu/m/uploads/revenue-ruling-78-340.pdf

www.landmark.edu/m/uploads/private-letter-ruling-8401024.pdf

www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf

[tsasaki]

My husband is questioning how we can take the deduction since we haven't paid much of the loan back yet? My son will be leaving after two years without a degree. It takes much longer to receive an associates degree at Landmark College. Initially students are taking a lot of non-credit classes to assist them with their various LD's. He will have enough credits to transfer to a regular college with a resource dept. only. I know the Landmark College just became accredited so a student can receive a Bachelor's Degree. I think their are two majors. I'm not positive. We can no longer afford to send our son to Landmark College. Don't get me wrong. He has really learned how to learn despite his learning difference. He has grown so much, enjoys studying, has learned organizational skill he never had and really blossomed because of Landmark College. He is very involved with student government met amazing individuals, professors and peers. I would highly recommend this College to any student struggling with an LD.

[healthy11]

I recommend that you ask Landmark's financial aid department representatives about your situation; they must have many others families who take out loans in order to attend. While they can't know your specific financial income or other medical expenses, they can probably direct you to CPAs who are knowledgeable and have handled tax questions for other Landmark families.

[tsasaki]

Thanks for the recommendation of calling LM financial aid department. I will do this first thing ttomorrow.

[bros]

Feb 28, 2013 22:54:04 GMT -5 tsasaki said:

My husband is questioning how we can take the deduction since we haven't paid much of the loan back yet? My son will be leaving after two years without a degree. It takes much longer to receive an associates degree at Landmark College. Initially students are taking a lot of non-credit classes to assist them with their various LD's. He will have enough credits to transfer to a regular college with a resource dept. only. I know the Landmark College just became accredited so a student can receive a Bachelor's Degree. I think their are two majors. I'm not positive. We can no longer afford to send our son to Landmark College. Don't get me wrong. He has really learned how to learn despite his learning difference. He has grown so much, enjoys studying, has learned organizational skill he never had and really blossomed because of Landmark College. He is very involved with student government met amazing individuals, professors and peers. I would highly recommend this College to any student struggling with an LD.

I believe you can deduct anything you have paid towards tuition and things like that not including loans.

Did you take this off your taxes when he started going? If not, file for an amended return. My parents did that when their accountant forgot to do an educational credit one year.

[dwolen]

In the tax year of 2010, during which most of the Landmark tuition was paid, we went to a private CPA, who had no problem with the Landmark documentation we showed her. Like I said in a private message to tsasaki, even at H+R Block, the tax preparer was fine with this, after I showed the documentation I got from Landmark.
Now, I also include ADHD coaching under medical expenses, I deducted the costs of Cogmed, too.
We saved up most of what we paid Landmark that year our dd was there in our state's college savings plan. We also had to take out a $14K loan, against my retirement account, which we are still paying off. I think the tax preparer had no problem with that.

BTW, tsasaki, my dd is going to Lesley U. Lesley's support system for LD students is excellent, according to my dd. She says the professors are so used to students twith accommodations that it is just a routine, and she has had zero hassles. She did get excellent advice from the Landmark college transfer counselor, and was accepted at all 5 of the colleges where she applied. Her friend went to U. of Denver, and dd was really tempted to go there, too, to be with her friend. Her friend said that U. of Denver's support program is not as good as it looks on paper. She had to explain to all her professors her accommodations, and not all of them were receptive some were resistant. Unfortunately, the friend left U. of Denver due to the problems getting accommodations.

[tsasaki]

In the week that I have posted the tax deduction question I took the advice of one post and called Landmark's financial aid office. They were very helpful and had me contact the CPA that did their powerpoint Wilder Business Services. I talked to Russ and he was able to answer all my questions. The loan does not have to be paid off before taking the medical deduction. Our CPA is now going to apply tuition at Landmark as a medical espense. I anyone has questions I advise calling Wilder Business Services at [phone] or [e-mail] We will also be filing and ammended return for last year. Thanks all who responded to my post.

[healthy11]

We're glad to have helped. Although we know you initially asked a tax question, we hope that you do continue to post in other areas of Millermom's forum! Here's the link to the college/young adults section: millermom.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=college

[fc11]

Feb 28, 2013 12:41:53 GMT -5 bros said:

You can take it as long as a doctor says it is medically necessary.

You can deduct the tuition as long as it exceeds 7.5% of your AGI

lets say 7.5% of your AGI is 10k a year and Landmark is 50k a year and you are paying all of it.

You can deduct 40k in medical expenses.

Sorry, didn't do my taxes for a long time.


therefore does it mean that if I were to pay 40K, then I don't have to pay the tax but apply amount as medical expenses??

[healthy11]

fc11, using the figures Bros gave in his example, your statement would be correct. Your specific income level could affect the numbers. (In Bros case, the family's AGI = $133,333 and 7.5% of that = $10,000)

I'm not sure if you're saying that neither you nor any tax preparer acting on your behalf has filed IRS forms for several years, but if that's the case, you definitely should consult with a CPA to ensure all the paperwork is properly "caught up to date."

[fc11]

thanks. husband and CPA have been doing taxes for years... hence I wasn't sure...
Therefore, theoretically, I can look into our taxes, and find a LD school.

[bros]

Remember, in some states, medical deductions are less than the 7.5% federal amount. In NJ, it is everything over 2% of your AGI.

[dwolen]

Wxcellent, glad to read you worked this out.

[LurkNoMore]

My son is also at Landmark (2nd semester) - we are going to bring all of the documentation that Landmark provided to our accountant & see what he says. My husband is still leery about it but I attended the session about this at Landmark's family weekend last weekend & the person from Financial Aid said that as far as they know, no one who has been audited or questioned about the deduction has had it overturned. We figure our son can also go another year before the money is gone...by then we hope he has the skills to transfer...at this point we would have him commute to the college where I work which does have an excellent special services department.

Tsaski, what year is your son? Did you attend Parent's Weekend last weekend?