Ohio home school credit for homeschool families
Tax credit · Ohio · Tax year 2025 · checked Oct 12, 2026 against 1 source · General information, not legal or financial advice.
Your Ohio home school credit to-do
- Check that your child qualifies
Only for a child who is excused from compulsory attendance for home education in Ohio (the family's home education notification). The parent pays the expenses, then claims the credit on the Ohio income tax return. - Claim on the 2025 Ohio return
With the 2025 Ohio IT 1040, due April 15, 2026 (an extension to file does not extend the time to pay).
What a valid Ohio home school credit receipt shows, and a log to fill in.
What Ohio home school credit says
Home School Expenses Credit (R.C. 5747.72), run by Ohio Department of Taxation.
- Homeschoolers
- Homeschoolers can use it
Only for a child who is excused from compulsory attendance for home education in Ohio (the family's home education notification). The parent pays the expenses, then claims the credit on the Ohio income tax return. - Amount
Who Grades Per year Per home-educated student K-12 $250 Tax year 2025: the lesser of $250 per qualifying student or the educational expenses paid. Changed from $250 per return to $250 per student by the 2025 budget law. Nonrefundable: it only lowers Ohio income tax owed. - What you can spend on
- Books
- Subscriptions
- School supplies
- Supplementary materials
- Computer software
- Applications
- What a receipt must show
- Keep supporting documentation and payment records (receipts) for at least four years from the later of the filing due date or the date you filed the return
- You must be able to support every amount claimed if the Department asks
- Expenses for computers or similar electronic devices or accessories do not count
- Where you submit
- Ohio IT 1040, Schedule of Credits line 14 (Home School Expenses Credit), filed on paper, through tax software or OH|TAX eServices · site
Reimbursement: you pay, then get paid back - Learning plan
- Not required
- Testing
- Not required
- Renewal
- Each tax year: claim it again on that year's Ohio return, for a child who is still home schooled and excused from compulsory attendance.
For expenses in tax year 2025, claimed on the return filed in 2026.
payment_mode "reimbursement" here means the family pays first and gets the money back through a lower Ohio income tax; the credit is listed under nonrefundable credits, so a family with no Ohio tax owed gets nothing back.
The change from $250 per return to $250 per qualifying student came with the 2025 state budget law (House Bill 96); codes.ohio.gov lists an R.C. 5747.72 version effective September 30, 2025, but that site (and tax.ohio.gov) could not be read from here, so the figures come from the Department of Taxation's 2025 IT 1040 instructions.
Figures for tax year 2026 (returns filed in 2027) were not yet published when checked.
payment_mode "reimbursement" here means the family pays first and gets the money back through a lower Ohio income tax; the credit is listed under nonrefundable credits, so a family with no Ohio tax owed gets nothing back.
The change from $250 per return to $250 per qualifying student came with the 2025 state budget law (House Bill 96); codes.ohio.gov lists an R.C. 5747.72 version effective September 30, 2025, but that site (and tax.ohio.gov) could not be read from here, so the figures come from the Department of Taxation's 2025 IT 1040 instructions.
Figures for tax year 2026 (returns filed in 2027) were not yet published when checked.
Sources
- Ohio Department of Taxation: 2025 Ohio IT 1040 / SD 100 instructions (Schedule of Credits, line 14 Home School Expenses Credit) · official · checked Oct 12, 2026
General information, not legal or financial advice. Programs change their rules every year; check with Ohio Department of Taxation before you spend. If something looks wrong, tell us.
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