qualify for a child tax credit. that s up to $1,000 for kids 16 and under. that if you re working and you need someone to take care of your child, daycare, at-home care, summer day camp if your child is 12 or younger, you might qualify for the dependent care credit, and a lot of parents sending their kids to college are like, what can i get? i m paying so much in tuition. you want to look at the american opportunity credit. that will give you credit for $2500. that s something you can have for the first four years of liege and there s also the lifetime learning credit, a tuition and fees credit. you can only take one per student. a lot of people postponing retirement because of their finances. one of the things you want to look at in that whole big package is tax breaks when you retire. definitely look at tax breaks and one of the biggest ones off the bat is the fact you can still contribute until april 15th to a traditional ira. a lot of folks may not realize they still have time
if you bought a car if you re in texas or florida, you can deduct that. that s gone away. tuition and fee deduction. parents struggling to put their kids through school. this is your last chance to take a $4,000 deduction on college or higher education. it s very confusing for people who have taken school classes. there s one people seem to prefer a little bit more. the american opportunity credit. the kids in school can get a refund up to $2500 even if they re not paying taxes. even though this $4,000 is expiring, there are others. you can only take one. here s one, mortgage insurance premium reduction. if you bought a house and had less than 20% less to put down. right, which is a lot of people. especially after 2006, chances are the bank made you
that s around for a few more years. steve: for awhile new storm windows, does that still qualify? we ve lost a lot of those breaks but there s still some of the more valuable ones. if you re an energy-efficient enthusiast. gretchen: what about washers and dryers? you want to check out to see specifically what is deductible and with and what isn t. gretchen: american opportunity credit, what s that? a decent break for your undergrads, $2,500 for an eligible college student. there are income requirements, you ve got to meet those. this is a break that undergrads tend to overlook even though it is a decent one. that has been extended as part of the fiscal cliff deal. steve: stuff people didn t know about. our old buddy vera gibbons. great report. gretchen: coming up, he survived the battle of mogadishu and says he has two things in common with
a break that will be around for a few more years as well. solar and other things as well. solar energy systems the geothermal heat pumps big ticket items for the environmentally conscious. the american opportunity credit. this was the hope credit. this has been changed to this. it is for all four years of college this is a valuable one 2500 a year. that s a 10,000 dollar subsidy over four years. you are eligible for the maximum amount if you meet income requirements 80,000 or less if you are single, double that if you are married and filing a joint return. a lot of kids are eligible for this one tend to miss this one. this is a decent break. this has been extended as part of the fiscal cliff deal. vera gibbons thanks. file early. not my favorite time of the year. 25 after the hour yet another health squacare for tv s barbar
daycare is not cheap. daycare is so costly, as we all know as parents. in this case, you get $3,000 for each child under the age of 13 for 6,000 for two kids and preteens. you should get in there. it s the child independent care credit. you should get in there and get that. you re paying an astronomical amount for these fees that you pay out to the daycare. gretchen: tax blessing number 4, education expenses. i think somebody was calculating, maybe my accountant, college could cost as much as 75, $80,000 a year by the time my kids get there. per year, like your accountant said. that s unbelievable. so you should go ahead and there is a few things when you talk about taxes that you can do. so the american opportunity credit, that s worth up to $2,500 and it s for the first four years of education. you have the lifetime learning credit which by the way, credits are great rather than deductions and such because credits cut your tax bill dollar