Avoid Truancy to Claim Education Tax Credits

Avoid Truancy to Claim Education Tax Credits

Avoid Truancy to Claim Education Tax Credits

The U.S. government is happy to help students pay for their continuing education so long as they attend class. Truancy has resulted in a billion-dollar tax headache for the U.S. Federal Government, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the office that is mandated with keeping an eye on the operations of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Administration’s investigators found that approximately 2.1 million taxpayers may have received $3.2 billion in American Opportunity Tax Credit claims erroneously between January 1, 2010, and May 28, 2010.

The American Opportunity Tax Credit was created in 2009 to assist students in meeting the cost of college. It gives out $2,500 toward college costs, much more than the $1,800 Hope Credit, which it replaced. Even better, $1,000 of the student tax relief is refundable, meaning that one is eligible for a refund if they don’t owe any taxes when they file. This tax break is available through 2012.

In their analysis of these figures, the TIGTA found that the IRS paid about $2.6 billion to 1.7 million persons who weren’t even attending college. Another $550 million went to students who didn’t attend school at least half-time or who were graduate students, contrary to the tax credit’s rules.

Students who were registered as dependents on other people’s tax returns got another erroneous $88 million in credit. Additionally, $256,000 in American Opportunity credit money was paid to 250 prisoners.

The main tax benefit of claiming an education credit is that the money comes directly off any monies one owes the government in taxes. This enables students to use the money that they have saved to pay for their college tuition and other qualified education expenses.

Alarmed by the stark results of the review, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, J. Russell George, …

Avoid Truancy to Claim Education Tax Credits Read More

All About University Foundation Courses

All About University Foundation Courses

image source

If your first language is not English but you wish to student at a UK university, a University Foundation course is an excellent step towards getting you where you want to be.

Even if your English skills are good, a University Foundation course will also improve the academic and research skills which are essential for higher education in the UK. The aim of university access courses is to ensure that students are prepared in all ways for UK higher education – that includes both linguistically and psychologically. Preparing in this way means that students are then able to make the absolute most of their degree course or MA in the UK.

Courses are available which are tailored for an undergraduate degree or an MA and the programmes are split into language skills and academic skills.

Undergraduate university foundation courses are aimed at those wishing to enter undergraduate arts, science or humanities courses. MA access courses are aimed at students wishing to study at postgraduate level in the UK. Both programmes include a focus on research and academic writing but these skills feature even more heavily on the MA prep course.

Foundation course features

These are the types of things you can expect on a university foundation course:

  • IELTS preparation. You will be able to sit the exam up to three times.
  • Seminars including academic and cultural topics
  • Guest speakers
  • One-to-one tutorials with regular chances to discuss your progress
  • Facilities to study independently as often as you like
  • Placement services

University foundation courses FAQs

How many people will be in my class?

There should be a maximum of 12 students in your class. Often there will only be 8 or 10.

How long do the courses last?

Courses can last between one term and three terms. One term lasts …

All About University Foundation Courses Read More

Getting Your Child Motivated for A Better Education

Getting Your Child Motivated for A Better Education

According to Psych Central, in the United States, there are more than about 30 percent of students failing to graduate high school and what is even more shocking, is in the urban settings, there are more than 70 percent of students who fail to graduate high school. Because of this high rate of students failing to graduate, this has cost the United States billions of dollars in lost of productivity and for crime rates to increase. It is very important for more parents and staff to become aware of the severity of the students failing in schools. There are more and more children ending up homeless and or involved in gang activity because they are not able to graduate school. Some of the root causes for children failing to graduate is that they have a huge lack of motivation to continue to be successful in school. Many children in high school are not as motivated to learn or grow with their education. It is important for parents to become more involved in helping their children stay motivated in their education and to keep them interested. Parents should be more creative in utilizing the latest platforms and technology in keeping education fun and interesting for their children.

According to the Edvocate, there are many studies that have been conducted that clearly show that the reason that the education system is failing children has to do with the following: parents not being involved enough, the closure of schools, overcrowded schools, technology downsides, lack of diversity, stagnant school spending, outdated teacher training methods, lack of teacher education innovation, some students are lost to the school-to-prison pipeline, influence of high school dropouts and the achievement gap. There are so many different reasons for why the educational system has been failing many students. …

Getting Your Child Motivated for A Better Education Read More

What Business Executives Can Gain from Professional Training

What Business Executives Can Gain from Professional Training

Professional training is just as important for business owners as it is for staff. chief executives can learn how to boost their companies a little better and they can find out what is working and not working in the industry. They can listen to stories about how markets are responding to certain strategies. The overall goal of professional training is to help you as the business owner grow and get better by learning from a community of peers. Professional training teaches us how to be professional, lead a company, and network properly.

Be Professional

There were so many things I didn’t know when I landed my first office job. I knew enough to wear appropriate clothing. I covered all the right areas, I brought in a purse, refrained from personal calls, but other things I just didn’t have a knack for. I couldn’t really type. I wasn’t fast at it, and my job was 100 percent data entry. I didn’t have confidence and I didn’t know how to hide it. I didn’t really use my inside voice all the time. Even though my voice isn’t loud, I still remember yelling across a cubicle a time or two. Luckily, I got a professional mentor. She was there to tell me the right and wrong ways to do things. She immediately corrected me if I did anything out of the ordinary. I didn’t appreciate her at first, but the more I reflect, her training helped me become a professional. Professional training can do that, it can help other people’s success and proper etiquette rub off on you.

Lead A Company

The majority of the people that gather in professional settings for additional training are usually already owners of a company. They already have a staff of so many employees and they …

What Business Executives Can Gain from Professional Training Read More

A Clear Guide to Remembering “Affect Vs. Effect”

A Clear Guide to Remembering “Affect Vs. Effect”

The English language is a beautiful dialect. There are over 600,000 words in the English language, with an abundance number of literary terms. The number of words in the Oxford English Dictionary is steadily growing yearly, as a new word is added to the dictionary every two hours. The English language initially apportioned much of its grammar and cardinal vocabulary with the Dutch and German, while later acquiring words from the French and Latin. Furthermore, English is the second most spoken language following Mandarin, with a staggering 840 million people speaking English as a first or second language. Globally, English is the official language of 67 countries, as well as 27 non-sovereign entities. Statistically, 25% of the world’s population speaks at least some English, and more people worldwide have learned English as their second language than there are domestic English speakers.

As a result of the copious amounts of words, literary terms and parts of speech, there is an abundant amount of misused or mispronounced words in the English language. One set of words that are repeatedly mixed up are affect versus effect. These words sound similar; however, their pronunciation differs slightly. Some may label these words as homophones, as they sound similar in pronunciation, but greatly differ in definition.

Let’s take a look below at how they differ:

Affect: This is generally a verb, which means to impact or change. When using effect, it generally conveys an event occurring to impact another event. When a person or thing has an influence or an impact on another person or thing, affect is the proper word to implement. Some synonyms of the word affect include words like influence, change, alter and modify. A prime example of this word in use is “The rain affected the football game”.

More examples: “Will …

A Clear Guide to Remembering “Affect Vs. Effect” Read More