How to get a tax deduction for education in 2021

What is the Tuition Tax Credit?

According to the legislation of the Russian Federation (Article 219 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), when paying for educational services, you can count on a tax deduction, that is, return part of the money spent on training.
A tax deduction is the portion of income that is not subject to tax. Therefore, you can get your tax refund on expenses incurred for education. If you officially work and pay income tax, have paid for your education or the education of your children/brothers/sisters, then you can get back part of the money in the amount of up to 13% of the cost of education.

Receiving a deduction for education for children

You have the right to receive social compensation in the form of a refund of part of the tax paid to pay for your children’s education if your situation meets the criteria required for compliance.

The child for whom the funds are being returned may be an adult, but must not reach the age of 24 full years.
The offspring’s education is carried out in a full-time format, and it does not matter what he attends. This could be a university, a school, or even a kindergarten; a full uniform is required and personal attendance is required.
A formal agreement on the provision of educational services is drawn up in the name of one of the parent-spouses.
Documents confirming the payment must be drawn up in the name of the person making the payment, or the payment was made on behalf of an attorney whose status is confirmed by a notary.

Note! The amount of compensation for the child has decreased relative to that offered to the payer, provided that he has undergone training. In this case, it is only 50,000, that is, you can return 13% of this amount - 6.5 thousand rubles.

Let's give an example. Last year you paid 30,000 rubles for your eldest daughter’s correspondence education at the local “University of Culture and Arts” in your city of residence, and another 40,000 for your youngest daughter at a private school. The salary and amount of tax paid for you remained the same as in the previous problem, that is, 250 thousand and 31 thousand rubles, respectively.

Since the eldest child is not studying full-time, it will not be possible to return the money for her, but the younger girl attends school in a standard format, even though it is private, it turns out that you can claim a return of 5,200, which represents 13% of the amount spent of 40,000 .

In what cases can you get a tax deduction for your own training?

You can take advantage of the social tax deduction for your own education and get part of your expenses back if:

You paid for educational services in official educational institutions. For example, at a university, technical school, driving school or training courses.
You officially work and pay personal income tax (all employees pay it);

Note: the tax deduction for your own education, unlike the deduction for the education of children, has no restrictions on the form of education: the money can be returned for full-time, part-time, evening or any other form.

How to get a tax refund for your child, sibling's education

You can get a personal income tax deduction for training not only for yourself. If you paid for the education of your children, brothers or sisters, you are also entitled to a tax deduction.

In this case, the following conditions must be met:

An educational institution must have a license to carry out educational activities. It does not matter whether it is a public institution or a private one.
Your children, brothers, sisters must be under 24 years of age.
The form of education for your children, brothers, sisters can only be full-time.
The contract must be in your name or in the name of your spouse;
Payment for tuition must come from you. This is confirmed by payment documents. Transfer of money by power of attorney is allowed.

So, if you want to receive a personal income tax refund for education in the future, then before enrolling in a university or driving course, or enrolling your child in a kindergarten or school, be sure to check with the educational institution for a license to carry out educational activities.

Remember: you cannot receive a tax deduction for the services of a tutor, even if the tutor officially works under a patent. Only if the tutor has registered an individual entrepreneur, opened a school and received a license to conduct educational activities, can he claim a tuition tax refund.

Place your order and we will fill out the 3-NDFL declaration for you!

Order a declaration

The amount of tax deduction for your own training

The amount of tax deduction for your own education is calculated for the calendar year and is determined by the following factors:

You cannot return more money than you transferred to the personal income tax budget (about 13% of the official salary).
You can return up to 13% of the cost of paid training, but not more than 15,600 rubles. This is due to the restriction on the maximum deduction amount of 120 thousand rubles (120 thousand rubles * 13% = 15,600 rubles).
The limit of 15,600 rubles applies not only to the deduction for education, but to all social deductions (except for expensive treatment and charity). The amount of all social deductions (training, treatment, pension contributions) should not exceed 120 thousand rubles. You can return a maximum of 15,600 rubles for all deductions.

Example: In 2021, Ivanov A.A. paid for his own university education in the amount of 150 thousand rubles. At the same time, in 2020 he earned 250 thousand rubles and paid income tax of 31 thousand rubles. Since the maximum tax deduction amount is 120 thousand rubles, then for 2021 (in 2021) Ivanov A.A. will be able to return only 120 thousand rubles. * 13% = 15,600 rubles.

Additional and more complex examples of calculating the tax deduction for training can be found here: Examples of calculating the tax deduction for training

What documents are needed to return part of the tuition fees through State Services?

What documents are needed to return part of the tuition fees through State Services? In addition to 3-NDFL (we filled it out through the State Services portal), other documents will be needed to calculate the amount of tax and to verify that the application has been filled out correctly by the Federal Tax Service inspector. So, you should prepare the following papers:

license of the institution (where the training was conducted);
an agreement confirming the provision of educational services;
checks or receipts through which payment can be confirmed;
certificate 2-NDFL.

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These documents will be sufficient if the student submits the papers in person. In the case where the parents are involved in the procedure, you additionally need to provide documents that confirm the relationship (legal representatives need papers to confirm guardianship or adoption), as well as a certificate of full-time study.

Keep in mind that all these papers can be submitted through the State Services portal. How to do it? Just click on the “Add Documents” button and upload the required papers in electronic or scanned form. In this case, the total volume of all downloaded files must be less than 20 megabytes.

Note! It is possible to submit 3-NDFL within three years from the moment the educational service and payment for it were received.

In what cases and in what amount can you receive a deduction for the education of your children?

You can receive a social tax deduction for the education of your children if the following conditions are met:

the child is no more than 24 years old;
the child is studying full-time (kindergarten, school, full-time university, etc.);
the agreement for payment for educational services is drawn up in the name of you, your spouse or a child;
actual payment documents (receipts, bills) must be drawn up in your name (or a power of attorney for the transfer of funds has been issued);

The maximum deduction for one child is 50 thousand rubles, that is, 6,500 rubles. to return.

Example: In 2021, Ivanov A.A. paid:

correspondence education at a university for his daughter Katya in the amount of 30 thousand rubles;
tuition at a paid school for his son Kolya in the amount of 40 thousand rubles.

At the same time, for 2021 Ivanov A.A. earned 250 thousand rubles and paid income tax 31 thousand rubles.

Since Katya is studying in the correspondence department, the money for her is A.A. Ivanov. can't return it. Therefore, for a maximum of 2021 (in 2021), he will be able to return 40 thousand rubles. * 13% = 5,200 rubles.

You can read more detailed information about the deduction for the education of children (the amount of the deduction, restrictions, nuances of paperwork) in the article: Features of the tax deduction for the education of children.

What can and cannot be deducted for?

Subject to the restrictions on age (up to 24 years) and form of education (full-time only), a deduction can be received for payment for educational services of a child in any institution that has the appropriate license . In particular, a deduction can be issued for:

payment for educational preschool services in kindergarten;
school fees;
payment for additional education in clubs and sections;
payment for driving school tuition;
payment for studies in secondary specialized educational institutions (lyceums, colleges, etc.);
payment for university education.

It is important to note that the deduction is provided only for educational services . For example, you cannot receive a deduction for paying for a child’s stay or meals in a kindergarten (only for the educational services provided there) or for paying for a stay in an extended day group at school.

Note: a deduction can also be received when receiving educational services from an individual entrepreneur without a license if one of his types of economic activity is educational services (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated August 18, 2014 No. 03-04-05/41163).

Amount of tax deduction for education of brothers/sisters

The amount of deduction for payment of educational services for brothers/sisters is calculated for the calendar year and is determined by the following factors:

You cannot return more money in a year than you transferred to the personal income tax budget (about 13% of the official salary).
In total, you can return up to 13% of the cost of paid training, but not more than 15,600 rubles per year.

Example: In 2021, Ivanov A.A. paid for the education of his brother Ivanov V.A. at a university for full-time study in the amount of 80,000 rubles. At the same time, for 2021 Ivanov A.A. earned 250 thousand rubles and paid income tax 31 thousand rubles. For 2021 Ivanov A.A. will be able to return 80,000 * 13% = 10,400 rubles.

Additional and more complex examples of calculating the tax deduction for training can be found here: Examples of calculating the tax deduction for training

Declaration 3-NDFL

This declaration is always used when it comes to filing a deduction, and it does not matter what type it belongs to. You can fill it out yourself or through a program specially created by the Russian Tax Service, which is downloaded from the official electronic resource.

You can apply for a personal income tax refund on the Federal Tax Service website

If you chose the manual filling method, then download the current form there, on the main web resource of the service, finding it as an attachment to a specific order. Or you can download this form from our article.

Those who use the program will significantly shorten the filling process, thereby affecting the overall duration of the entire process, since they will be able to avoid making various mistakes as much as possible. Having opened the first tab after launching the program, you must immediately indicate who the income tax payer is who is applying for compensation. Choose the meaning of an individual who is not an individual businessman, and his only source of income is his official place of employment.

The taxpayer category includes an individual “other”; the type to which the completed declaration belongs must be entered automatically. We are talking about the format of the form, that is, its marking - 3-NDFL.

Please note that most often the program sets the above parameters immediately, automatically, so all that the payer will need to enter on his own is the code of the tax inspectorate to which he belongs according to his place of residence, that is, the department that ultimately receives the documents under discussion.

Then enter information about yourself, since it was you who made the payment for educational services. This information includes:

Full Name;
taxpayer identification number;
official registration;
day of birth;
the place where your birth took place.

Then you enter information into the certificate regarding the funds received at your workplace in the form of income for each month. At the same time, they indicate the amount of payments made monthly to the country’s treasury. You need to find information on the described columns inside the 2-NDFL certificate form, which you previously requested from the accounting department at your place of employment.

Next, move on to the main thing. Indicate the amount of funds spent on training in the tab with the appropriate name. Thanks to the data received, the program from the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation will automatically generate a declaration form.

The disadvantages of drawing up a document without using the required software are that you yourself will have to enter encodings inside it, indicating specific categories of taxpayers, funds received by them, etc.

As for filling out the form for a child, or a brother and sister, it is also done by you, that is, by the payer, so the procedure has few differences from the first method we described above. It’s just that this time the money spent on training will be indicated in a different column; at the same time, the package of documents actually submitted to the inspection will contain other components.

The maximum amount possible for provision also changes in the case of children, but if compensation is for a brother or sister, then its amount remains the same.

Sample declaration

Let's give an example. In 2015, you spent 86 thousand rubles to pay for your eldest daughter’s university education. You received an official document confirming that she is studying full-time and provided it to the tax office along with other necessary documents.

At the same time, your salary in the same year amounted to 550 thousand 300 rubles, and it was taxed and reduced monthly at a rate of 13% personal income tax. As we remember, the maximum amount eligible for refund in this case is 50 thousand rubles. It turns out that it is from this account that you are applying to receive 6 thousand 500 rubles, the return of which can be processed directly at your workplace.

Video - Tax deduction for education

How to get a deduction?

The process of obtaining a deduction for education consists of: collecting and submitting documents to the tax office, checking documents by the tax office and transferring money. You can learn more about the process of obtaining a tax deduction, indicating the deadlines, here: The process of obtaining a tax deduction for education.

The process of obtaining a deduction can be simplified by using our service. We will fill out the 3-NDFL declaration for you, tell you what other documents you will need for the deduction, and also give detailed instructions on submitting documents to the tax authorities. Or we will send your documents ourselves, without your participation. If you have any questions while working with the service, tax experts will be happy to advise you.

Prepare documents for deduction

How to apply for a tax deduction and what documents are needed

Stage 1. Collect documents

Nuances:

To certify copies, the taxpayer only needs to sign on each page with a transcript and indicate the date.

If the training took place in a foreign institution and the supporting documents are drawn up in a foreign language, a notarized translation into Russian is required.

It is better to obtain a list of documents for obtaining a deduction from the tax office at your place of registration. This is necessary to take into account the specific considerations of your tax office and thereby save time.

How to obtain documents for deduction in Netology

Write a request indicating your full name, title and course number. For example, like this: “Please provide documents to receive a tax deduction. I studied at the course IM-78 “Internet Marketing.”
The Netology Support Center assigns a number to the request by which you can track its status.
Documents are sent promptly: for example, I received my package on the day of the request. In addition to the contract and a copy of the license, Netology provides an additional certificate of tuition payment, including the date of payment.

Step 2. Fill out two documents

Tax return 3-NDFL - at the end of the year in which the training was paid.
An application for a personal income tax refund can be written in any form, but the Federal Tax Service has a recommended convenient form. The tax is returned to the personal account of the person applying for the deduction - details will be required.

Documents can be filled out on the website or by hand, depending on the method of submitting documents.

What to consider when filling out your tax return

For one year, only one declaration with all types of deductions is prepared . This is important: if you submit another declaration later, it will be considered updated and will cancel the previous one.

Declaration 3-NDFL is submitted separately for each year and in the form that was in force in the reporting year . To do everything correctly, fill out declarations in the taxpayer’s personal account (section “Life situations” → “Submit a 3-NDFL declaration”) or through the special “Declaration” program.

The declaration is signed with an electronic signature, which is generated free of charge in your personal account

The total weight of documents attached to the online declaration should not exceed 20 MB . They can be attached in the form of scanned copies or photographs.

Stage 3. Submit documents for deduction - to the tax office or through the employer

How to file a tax deduction → the most common method

online through the taxpayer’s personal account: a simple and convenient way, there are tips → will save time on filling out paper documents and queues at the tax office;
in person at the tax office at your place of registration;
by mail.

Nuances:

To register a personal account, you will have to go to the tax office twice : to submit an application and receive a login and password.

To log into your personal account on the Federal Tax Service website, you can use a confirmed account on the State Services portal . For example, Sberbank, Tinkoff Bank and Post Bank offer their clients to create such an entry in online banking without visiting a bank branch or service center. I have described below how this can be done.

There are pros and cons to visiting the tax office in person . The advantage of this option is that the inspector will personally check the documents and immediately tell you if something is missing or needs to be corrected. Among the disadvantages: visiting takes time; the tax inspector may require additional documents.

Submitting documents by mail . If there are errors in the documents or something is missing, this will become known only after 2–3 months (after verification).

Personal experience: obtaining a State Services account through Tinkoff Bank

Step 1. You can register in online banking or mobile application. I used the web version. All you needed was your SNILS number.

Step 2. An SMS quickly arrived asking you to confirm your account registration:

Step 3. After confirmation, an SMS was received from gosuslugi with a password for the first login to the system.

Step 4. Use it to go to “State Services” and set a permanent password. It's better to do it right away.

Step 5. In the personal account of “Gosuslug” I see that the account status is “Confirmed”. This means that I can use it to log into my personal account on the Federal Tax Service website.

Step 6. Let's try to log into the taxpayer's personal account using this entry:

Step 7. After authorization, the system displays a message that the account is being created and offers to log in later. I came in 2 days later - the office was ready for work.

In the Tinkoff Bank mobile application, you can request an account through the client profile, which is called up from the bottom menu item “More”:

In your profile, you need to go to the “Registration for State Services” section and select the required action: creating or confirming an account.

Summary : I quickly and easily created a Confirmed State Services account through Tinkoff Internet Banking. Using such an entry, you can log into the taxpayer’s personal account without visiting the tax office.

How to apply for a deduction through an employer

Prepare copies of documents confirming the right to social deduction.
Contact the tax office to receive a notification of the right to deduction - with an application and attached copies of documents.
After 30 days you will receive this notification.
Submit it to the accounting department at work.
Immediately receive a monthly salary increase.

Nuances:

Advantage: You don't have to fill out a return and wait until the end of the year to initiate your tax refund.

The tax deduction will not be returned directly , but by stopping the deduction of 13% personal income tax from wages - until the amount of the refundable tax is exhausted.

If at the end of the period there is money left for deduction, the accounting department will not be able to transfer it to the next year . The tax office will have to pay the rest by transferring it to the account - you will have to contact them again. It’s easier to avoid such a situation.

When and for what period can I receive a tax deduction?

You can only get a refund for tuition for those years in which you paid directly. However, you can submit a declaration and return the money through the tax office only in the year following the year of payment or later. That is, if you paid for training in 2021, you will be able to return the money no earlier than 2021.

If you did not file a deduction immediately, you can do it later, but you can return the tax for no more than the last three years. For example, if you paid for education in 2016-2020 and did not receive a tax deduction, then in 2021 you can get your tax back only for 2021, 2021 and 2021.

The entire procedure for obtaining a deduction usually takes three to four months. Most of the time is spent checking documents by the tax office.

Note: from January 1, 2021, the social tax deduction for training can be received through the employer, and there is no need to wait until the end of the calendar year. Details about receiving a deduction through an employer can be found in our article: Obtaining a tax deduction for training through an employer.

Registration of a return through the portal "State Services"

Registration of an income tax refund for education through the State Services portal is easy to complete. Essentially, it all comes down to the need to fill out 3-NDFL through the website. To do this, you need to act in accordance with the step-by-step instructions:

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Log in to the gosuslugi.ru portal. Then open the "Popular Services" section. There you need to find “Taxes and Finance”, and then select “Acceptance of tax returns”.
After this, click on the “Get service” button. When filling out 3-NDFL for the first time, you need to click on “Fill out a new declaration.” Note! 3-NDFL has four sections: “Information on income”, “Personal information of the applicant”, “Information on expenses” and “Results”.
Next you need to start filling out the declaration. The taxpayer’s personal data will be transferred automatically from the personal account (this data was entered by the person when registering on the portal). After this, the “Income” tab is filled in. This can be done manually or by transferring data from 2-NDFL. Click on the required item.
Now you should fill out the “Deductions” section. Please note that it is presented in five subsections: “Contributions”, “Standard”, “Securities”, “Social”, “Property”. We need a subsection “Social deductions”, this is where you can get your education tax back. In the column “Training expenses (your own/children)” you should write down the amount that was paid for training. Please note that the amount of payment must be confirmed (usually a receipt from the bank is sufficient).
All that remains is to fill out the “Results” tab. Here you have to calculate the following data: tax base, total income, amount to be refunded, calculations and taxes paid. The calculation is done automatically. Next, you need to choose a method for obtaining help. You can download it to your computer (it will be in pdf format) if you plan to personally submit the paper to the Federal Tax Service, or choose to send the document online. The latter requires mandatory certification of the declaration using an electronic digital signature, and then the paper will be sent to the Federal Tax Service through the State Services.

Receiving a deduction when contacting an employer

When receiving a tax deduction for studying at an institute through an employer, you should:

Collect the required documents . In this case, it is not necessary to provide a declaration of forms 3-NDFL and 2-NDFL. Be sure to include an application requesting a deduction notice for the employer.
Contact the Federal Tax Service with documents to confirm your right to receive a tuition deduction. If you cannot provide the documents yourself, send them by mail or electronically.
Receive a notification from the Federal Tax Service , which will be ready 30 days from the date of submission of documents (paragraph 2, paragraph 2, article 219 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Provide proof to the employer for whom you work. Submit an application for benefits in the accounting department. The 13% income tax will not be calculated on your salary until the full amount of the required deduction has been collected.

It is possible to receive a deduction through an employer if the tuition for education at the institute was transferred in the current year.

There is no need to wait until the end of the year to submit documents.