In 2008 the Georgia legislature earmarked $50 million of tax money to be used for qualifying private institutions for school scholarships. It was their compromise to a voucher system. Last year, only about $3 million of that was used. The state oversees about 50 privately run Student Scholarship Organizations, or SSOs which process the actual funds. The SSO Bill (HB1133) enables tax payers to put a portion of their Georgia taxes towards particular schools which can set up a scholarship pool to draw from, for students in need.
The tax payer can receive a dollar for dollar tax credit (Married up to $2500, individuals up to $1000) on their Georgia taxes and a federal deduction for the same amount, as a charitable gift. Corporations can also give, 75% for a “C Corp.”, less for S or LLC Corporations. The process is pretty simple. Giving can be done all at once, or several times throughout the year. We utilized the Pay It Forward Scholarships through Corporate Giving for Education which is one of the Georgia Department of Education's approved SSO's.
1) Fill out a one page form, Georgia IY-QEE-TP1 which goes to the state to verify the funds (of the $50 mill.) are available.
2) The Dept. of Revenue approves the amount and notifies the taxpayer.
3)Within 30 days, payment from the taxpayer must be sent to the SSO, with the amount stated in #1, specifying a qualifying school ("Heritage Academy", Braselton).
4)The SSO sends the funds to the school, to be used as they see fit, for scholarships. (The SSO has to obligate 90% of funds and keeps 10% for expenses.)
If you'd like more information for your student or would like to help us offset some of our trip expenses using this method --which will benefit us, but will not ultimately entail any out of pocket costs for you-- please let me know.
