The Individual Income Tax Credit Program encourages the community get directly involved in improving education in Arizona by re-directing their state income tax to organizations like APESF that provide educational scholarships to private school students. Individuals are entitled to a 100% dollar-for-dollar credit against their state income tax owed, up to $1000 per married couple or $500 per single person. APESF then disburses at least 90% of its annual revenue to students for private school tuition expenses. How to donate >>
Eligibility
An eligible student is one who is enrolled in a non-governmental school in K-12 grade and has a completed application on file. Some disabled preschool students may also apply.
Application Process
Families must apply each year beginning April 1 to be eligible to receive a scholarship. APESF has 4 award cycles — February, May, August and November. All applications go out-of-date after February 28 of each year. Please view our timeline for more information.
Families are encouraged to apply online. Once your application has been processed by our staff, you will receive a notification email indicating that your application is awaiting consideration. If your child receives a scholarship, you will receive an additional email when the funds are sent to the school.
Award Criteria
The Scholarship Committee meets during each distribution cycle to award scholarships. During their application review process, a scholarship may be awarded based on one or more of the following criteria:
- Recommendations of donors, schools or the general public
- Financial need of the student’s family
- Individual merits of the student applicant
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Recommendations
Federal tax regulations state that a contribution made for the direct or designated benefit of an individual is considered a “gift” and not a charitable contribution, therefore a tax credit or deduction is not allowed. However, the code does allow for donors to make recommendations which are not designations with the understanding that the final decision to award tuition scholarships is up to the complete and sole discretion of the School Tuition Organization (APESF). Since our inception, we have allowed donors and partner schools to make recommendations to the Scholarship Committee in support of specific students and/or students attending specific schools. Although we cannot guarantee that a recommendation will be honored, we have consistently found that individuals in the community and our partner schools are helpful in identifying students and families who are excellent candidates for tuition assistance and represent our organizational objectives. Therefore, any recommendation received will be strongly considered. It does not, however, imply a guaranteed award.
Reciprocity (”Swapping”)
Reciprocity or “swapping” of any type is strictly prohibited. When two or more individuals agree to recommend each others’ child when making their tax credit contributions with the expectation that their own family members benefit through the exchange or “swap”, it violates federal tax law which states that you may not deduct a contribution from which you receive or expect to receive any benefit. If reciprocity is suspected, the donor(s) will be notified and their recommendation(s) will not be considered. APESF further suggests that any family applying for a scholarship and also making a tax credit contribution should consider recommending either the general fund or students at a particular school and avoid individual recommendations of specific students to protect their donation’s tax treatment.
Resources for Parents
- Supported Schools
APESF does not limit the available of scholarships to students of any type of school. This is a list of schools we currently support. If your schools is not listed, please contact us to add your school. - FASToolkit
Use this great resource to help raise awareness about the tax credit program by sending your friends, family and business associates your personalized family profile with a copy of our donor brochure.