Georgia Education Expense Tax Credit

Now you can provide scholarship funds to the students at The Joy House’s on-campus, GAC-accredited school. Your contribution will qualify for a dollar-for-dollar education tax credit on your Georgia income tax return.

The Georgia Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit Program allows individual and corporate taxpayers to redirect a portion of their State income taxes to benefit students at private schools, including The Joy House Academy.

Each year, the State of Georgia allows a portion of state income tax dollars to be designated for school scholarships. In 2019 the portion was raised to $100 million. This program allows individuals and companies to receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donations for student scholarships at accredited non-profit private schools in Georgia. The state legislature amended the law in 2013 to open this benefit up to LLCs, S-Corps and Partnerships.

All donations are processed by organizations called Student Scholarship Organizations(SSO). The Joy House is working with Georgia Student Scholarship Organization (GaSSO) as our SSO. All contributions designating the Joy House Academy will be directed to the teens in our program to meet their educational needs.

Scholarship contributions can have a significant impact on supporting the Joy House program, as nearly 20 percent of our budget needs are for educational expenses. We have received a record amount of funding through this program over the past couple of years and hope to continue to grow this in 2021. We are getting closer to funding our entire educational expense through this program.

Since 2019 all requests were granted by the state at 100% with the raised cap. In prior years the cap has been reached on the first business day of the year and requests were pro-rated. With the possibility that the cap can be met on the first business day it is imperative that we have those who want to participate to act between now and the end of the year to fill out the appropriate request form. You can fill out the appropriate request online at the GaSSO website and they will be automatically input to the DOR. You can get the details below on how to do this.

The state has set generous limits. You can contribute any amount you choose up to the following:

  • Couples filing jointly can redirect up to $2,500 of their income tax liability.
  • Individuals can redirect up to $1,000 of their income tax liability.
  • C Corporations that pay Georgia income taxes can redirect up to 75% of their income tax liability.
  • LLCs, S-Corps, and Partnerships: Up to $10,000 or 6% of income, whichever is less.

Easy To Participate

Designating your tax credit to The Joy House School is easy. Simply follow these steps.

  1. Make Your Pledge. All pledge requests are handled online to reserve your dollar-for-dollar tax credit. You can make your 2022 request now. Please follow this link to fill out the pledge form on the GaSSO website. If you don’t have a GaSSO account it will ask you to create one. This will allow you to track your pledge, approval, etc..  If you have an existing account simply login. Complete the pledge form and insure you specify “The Joy House School” as your school of choice. On completion and submission of the form you will receive an email confirmation from GaSSO.
  2. GaSSO makes Requests: This step requires no action from you. Your request will automatically be input to the DOR on the first business day of the New Year.
  3. DOR Confirmation. The Georgia DOR will review your application. You will then be sent an approval letter by mail. This letter will include the approved amount you can donate. You should receive this letter by the end of February. Last year most of the approval letters were received before the end of January.
  4. Donate to Help Teens. After you receive your approval letter, you will have 60 days to make your donation to the Georgia Student Schloarship Organization (GaSSO). You can make your donation by sending a check by mail. Please designate The Joy House School on the memo line of your check and include a photocopy of the DOR approval letter.
  5. Get Credit! GaSSO will send you a confirmation form IT-QEE-SSO1, which, along with the DOR approval letter, you will need to file with your state tax return in order to claim the Educational Expense Tax-Credit.

If you have any questions about the process, or need assistance, contact Steve Lowe by email or phone at 706-253-7569.