My comment about the military serving overseas was that these families are still liable for US taxes, but do not have a US state homeschooling law with which they comply. So any kind of tax credit that was dependent on possession of some kind of letter from the state or notice of intent would be difficult or impossible for them to claim.

Aha, now I understand, Sebastian. That would be a nasty wrinkle.

I can see ’staff weenies’* writing inappropriate policy letters to bridge that gap.

*unofficial term used by non-staff weenies to describe those who get to write policy affecting everyone

And the federal government spends an average of $168 per American on education. To then give a $500 credit to every child would be problematic. Where is the money coming from? And for as many children as there are in the US, that proposal might be getting close to using up the almost $60 billion budget the DOE currently has.

And thank you, CW. I think the Coverdell ESA was what I was thinking of. You can see how fresh it was in my memory.

As for the tax credit, I suppose it would be nice for any parent to have this credit, but that would then leave only the people without children being fully taxed to support the schools. That seems kind of churlish. “You people without kids to put in any school ought to pay for all kids’ schooling at the state(?) level as a public good, but we people with school-aged children who don’t use the system get cash back from the feds as a private good because we’ve 1) incurred the expense of children, and 2) chosen not to use the fee-free system.”

Transference of wealth based on manifested fecundity and rebuffing of services?? [shakes head to clear it]

Since schooling is presumed to be a public good, then all of the public shoulders the cost, regardless of the presence of children in the taxpayers’ lives, and regardless of how any of those children are schooled.

I don’t think that teachers should have to pay in order to be able to do their jobs, but I don’t see homeschoolers claiming this relief are doing the same thing. Homeschooling isn’t a paying job for the homeschooling parents, it is their choice of schooling. (I’m really not trying to be a meanie, it’s just what seems to follow, logically)

I don’t know about expat taxation. It probably varies with the country in question, but I’m pretty sure [crosses fingers] that US taxation of those overseas workers is a given. I know that after the German reunification, the German government chased the cash cow of non-taxpaying homesteading DoD civilians and contractors, and caught it. Sorting out who qualifies for what could be quite a can of worms.

For military, the sponsors just pay ‘normal’ taxes regardless of the lack of any schooling laws to be followed. US citizen-spouses-of-military who work on the economy often don’t have to pay German taxes because they don’t receive German benefits; EU citizens do, and are eligible for benefits such as Kindergeld (money paid to parents specifically _for_ the children). There was a lawsuit ages ago concerning a refund (??) for American Wedgwood employees in American exchanges (the PX system) in Germany. I don’t think it was settled with a return of money to employees. (it was all murky when it was explained to me when I worked for Wedgwood — yes, I have lovely china — and so much depends on your citizenship; I didn’t keep up with the suit. I _*may*_ have a lot of that bass-ackwards as it was [yikes!] about 20 years ago.)

(I’m assuming the inclusion of expats and military was about paying taxes — apologies if I’ve mis-read)