Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit Qualified Expenses: What Counts and What Doesn't

The Five Qualified Expense Categories

Idaho Code Section 63-3029N defines exactly what the Parental Choice Tax Credit covers. There are five categories, and expenses must fit squarely into one of them to survive an audit.

1. Tuition and Fees

Full-time K–12 tuition and mandatory academic fees at an eligible nonpublic school, microschool, or learning pod. The school doesn't need to be accredited — but the instruction must cover at least the four core subjects.

What you need: A paid institutional invoice showing the student's name, the academic term, and the amount charged.

2. Curriculum Materials

Textbooks, workbooks, and instructional software covering the four core academic subjects: English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Starting with tax year 2026, HB 934 explicitly allows parents to assemble curriculum from multiple publishers rather than buying one comprehensive package.

So if you use Saxon Math, Sonlight for language arts, and a separate science publisher, all three qualify as long as each covers its core subject area.

What you need: Paid publisher receipts with itemized descriptions showing which core subject the material covers.

3. Academic Tutoring

Out-of-school tutoring in the four core subjects — but only from an instructor who is not a member of the student's household or immediate family. This is one of the most important restrictions in the program. Your sister-in-law who tutors your kids in math doesn't count. A non-family tutor hired through a tutoring service does.

What you need: An invoice from the tutoring provider showing the subject, dates, and amount. The invoice should make clear the tutor is not a household member.

4. Standardized Testing and Exams

Fees for nationally standardized achievement tests, AP exams, SAT/ACT registration, test preparation courses, and industry-recognized certification exams. If your student takes the Iowa Assessments, the PSAT, or an AP Chemistry exam, those fees qualify.

What you need: Official registration receipts from the testing agency.

5. Transportation

Reasonable transportation expenses to get the student to and from a nonpublic school, microschool, or instructional facility. This doesn't apply to general errands that happen to include an educational stop — the trip must be specifically for getting the student to or from their place of instruction.

What you need: A contemporaneous mileage log recording the date, origin and destination, purpose of the trip, and miles driven for each instance. "Contemporaneous" means you log it when it happens, not reconstructed at tax time.

What Does NOT Qualify

The Tax Commission has made several categories explicitly off-limits. Getting these wrong is how families trigger audits and clawbacks.

Parent teaching time. You cannot claim compensation for your own instruction, your own time, or any payment to yourself for teaching your children. This is the biggest misconception about the credit — it funds materials and third-party services, not parent labor.

Family member tutoring. Tutoring payments to relatives or anyone living in the student's household are prohibited, regardless of the tutor's qualifications.

General extracurriculars. Sports equipment, club fees, music lessons, art classes, and non-academic field trips don't qualify. They fall outside the four-core-subject framework.

Technology and internet. Home internet service, general-purpose computers, tablets, and consumer electronics are excluded unless they're part of a nonpublic school's mandatory instructional fee. Buying a laptop for homeschool doesn't count.

Unitemized bulk purchases. If you buy supplies from Amazon or Walmart and the receipt just says "educational materials" without specifying which core subject the items serve, the Tax Commission will disallow the expense on audit.

Anything already covered by the Empowering Parents grant. If an Empowering Parents grant paid for a math curriculum, you cannot also claim that same purchase under the tax credit. The anti-stacking rule is enforced through cross-referencing between the Tax Commission and the State Board of Education.

Grey Areas to Watch

Art supplies used in a core subject: A watercolor set for an art class doesn't qualify. But if your science curriculum includes a lab component that uses specific materials, and those materials are itemized on the curriculum publisher's receipt as part of the science package, they're covered.

Educational software subscriptions: An IXL Math subscription qualifies because it's core-subject instructional software. A general "educational games" subscription probably doesn't, unless you can demonstrate it covers one of the four core subjects specifically.

Co-op fees: If your homeschool co-op charges fees for classes taught by a non-family instructor in core subjects, those fees likely qualify. But general co-op membership dues for field trips, social events, and elective activities don't.

How to Protect Your Receipts

The Tax Commission requires you to retain all original receipts for at least four years after filing. Every receipt must show the provider's name and contact information, a specific description of what was purchased, the date and dollar amount, and proof the transaction is complete.

The biggest documentation failure is vague receipts. "School supplies — $47.82" from a retail store won't survive audit. "Saxon Math Grade 4 Student Textbook — $47.82" from the publisher will.

The Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit Parent Guide includes expense tracking worksheets pre-formatted with every field the Tax Commission requires, plus a qualified-expense reference card you can check before making each purchase.

See more Idaho guides →