Key Takeaways
- For college-age children and private educational expenses, here’s the bad news.
- When factoring in an IRS payment plan or when negotiating a collection resolution, the IRS does not include any expenses that you have for your college-age children or any private educational expen…
- The reason for this is that the government views those expenses as luxury items even though most taxpayers in the system in that situation would disagree.
For college-age children and private educational expenses, here’s the bad news. When factoring in an IRS payment plan or when negotiating a collection resolution, the IRS does not include any expenses that you have for your college-age children or any private educational expenses. The reason for this is that the government views those expenses as luxury items even though most taxpayers in the system in that situation would disagree. A lot of the pushback that we get from taxpayers is well if it’s a choice between paying for taxes and sending my kids to college, I’m going to send my kids to college and while I understand that sentiment as a parent myself, you have to understand that the IRS employees that you’re negotiating with often make a salary that’s a lot less than yours. So you’re dealing with somebody who would also view that expense as a luxury item. This is particularly true for kids who are over the age of 18. The IRS considers those children to be adults and therefore kicks them out of the nest. Now with that said, it does not mean that you cannot get an allowance for educational expenses or for supporting college-age children but there’s some tricks and tips to doing that and you’re going to have to be very careful on how you put those expenses in the file. So rather than go into that, what I recommend that you do is contact a qualified representative or tax attorney and have us walk you through how to best include those expenses and how to get your resolution.
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