 Books, pencils and notebooks are necessities for the first day of school and purchasing them can also be rewarding. Haiti Clotter shows us how shopping for back-to-school items can give you a tax break. Buying certain school supplies can pay off when filing your Minnesota income tax return. The K-12 Education Subtraction and K-12 Education Credit can lower the tax you pay or put money back into your pocket. Parents must purchase educational services and materials to assist with their child's education. The child must also be in grades K-12 at a public, private or home school. All the school supplies you buy until December 31st of this year qualify as expenses to receive the credit or the subtraction for your 2017 tax return. Common expenses that qualify are tuition, books, pencils and calculators, but keeping track of your receipts is required. Without receipts, benefits don't apply. For the K-12 subtraction, you may subtract up to $1,625 for each child in grades K-6 and $2,500 for each child in grades 7-12. According to the Minnesota Department of Revenue, families saved an average of $242 with the Education Credit and nearly 200,000 families received education subtraction. In this last session, we really focused on trying to give tax breaks to everyday Minnesotans, the common average person. By adding a little bit extra to the pockets of the families with the children going to school, it'll hopefully help them out a little bit. Expenses such as backpacks and school lunches are among some of the items that don't qualify for the tax benefits. One common question every year is, does sports equipment qualify as a credit or hockey camp or football camp? And no, athletic things do not qualify for the credit. On the college or university level, you can earn a maximum annual credit of $2,500 per eligible student through the American Opportunity Tax Credit. If your income is low enough, you might even get a refund, but this credit only applies for four years. Essentially, you calculate your tax, and if you have a liability or you owe some tax or they're keeping some of what you paid in, then you can use the credit against that. The IRS may ask for proof, so keep those receipts handy just in case of an audit. In Bemidji, Haiti-Clauder, Lakeland News. If you're headed to the Minnesota State Fair this year, you can visit the Revenue booth in the Education Building and get your special envelopes to keep up with your school supply receipts. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.