To apply for your Opportunity Maine tax credit
Overview
The Opportunity Maine program is designed to provide a tax credit to help cover the repayment of student loans for eligible Maine students who work and pay taxes in the state after they finish school.
Although many MCCS students take out loans to help pay for college, the MCCS continues to strongly advise students in need of financial assistance to pursue grants and scholarships before turning to loans. First and foremost, students are advised to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as early as possible each year and to apply by May of each year for the State of Maine Grant Program, which provides scholarships of $1,200 to qualified students. For more information about these and other grant opportunities, contact your college’s financial aid office or the Finance Authority of Maine.
Once you have pursued all grant opportunities, you may wish to apply for student loans and the Opportunity Maine tax credit.
Please note that because Opportunity Maine is new for tax year 2008, a number of implementation questions have yet to be fully resolved. Based on its reading of the new law, the Maine Community College System has attempted to provide students with the information necessary to apply for the tax credit (below). Nonetheless, the application process is likely to be time consuming for applicants, and the MCCS estimates that a 2008 MCCS graduate who received his or her degree in spring 2008, attended college full-time during that final semester, and began loan repayments in June of 2008 is likely to receive a tax credit of approximately $60 for tax year 2008.
How to apply
The procedures required by the Opportunity Maine law and the MCCS for claiming your tax credit are the same at all seven colleges of the MCCS. Students interested in obtaining the Opportunity Maine tax credit need to complete the following steps:
Independent of your community college, you must also:
To enroll in the Opportunity Maine Program, you must:
- a. Complete page 1 of the Opportunity Maine contract and submit it electronically to your college.
- b. To do this, select your college from the list below, complete page one of the contract (online), and submit the form electronically (using the submit button at the top of page one). Please note that you do not need to provide an electronic signature. Your submission of the form will be considered your signature.
- Because the community colleges anticipate receiving a large number of applications, your contract must be submitted electronically. If the submit button at the top of the form fails to work, save the completed form to your computer and e-mail it as an attachment to your financial aid office.
- c. Remember to print and retain a copy of the contract for your records. You will need it when you graduate and want to begin the process of claiming your tax credit.
Central Maine Community College
Eastern Maine Community College
Kennebec Valley Community College
Northern Maine Community College
Southern Maine Community College
Washington County Community College
York County Community College
2. Graduate and otherwise qualify
Once you have properly enrolled in Opportunity Maine, you must earn your degree and meet all of the program’s residency, employment, and other eligibility requirements. To learn more about those requirements, go to Learn More About Opportunity Maine.
3. Certify your graduation status
Once you have graduated, take a paper copy of your enrollment contract to your college Registrar’s Office and ask them to certify your graduation status (the first certification) on page 2 of your Opportunity Maine contract.
4. Identify and list your loans
Once you have completed Step 3, you need to complete the section on page 2 of your Opportunity Maine contract called “Loans that are part of my financial aid package”.
Once you identify which of your loans qualify for the tax credit (see the checkbox on this page), contact the sources listed below to obtain the information necessary to complete this part of your Opportunity Maine contract.
a. National Student Loan Database
This site contains information about your subsidized and unsubsidized federal loans, including Stafford and Perkins loans.
The site allows you to create an account in order to view current information about your loans.
To create the account, you’ll need the PIN (personally identifiable number) that was issued to you when you completed the FAFSA. If you have lost or forgotten your PIN, you can obtain a duplicate (or an original) at: http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp.
Questions about information contained on NSLDS, can be directed to the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID or TDD 1-800-730-8913, Monday through Friday (8am to midnight) or Saturday (9 am to 6 pm). Or you can send an e-mail to the Federal Student Aid Information Center.
b. Other alternative or private lenders
If you have also received alternative or private loans, you may contact those lenders for copies of pertinent loan documents and up-to-date information about your principal and rate of interest. Such lenders include, for example, the (MELA) Maine Education Loan Authority at 131 Presumpscot Street,
Portland, ME 04103, 800-922-6352.
c. Other sources of information
You can also obtain information about your loan amounts by reviewing your Master Promissory Note (MPN) that you received from your lender. If you do not know who your lender is, you may be able to find this information on the NSLDS website.
5. Complete work sheet to determine your tax credit
Once you have gathered the loan information detailed in Step 4, go to the MCCS Opportunity Maine worksheet to determine the amount of your tax credit.
After completing the worksheet, be sure to print a copy for your records.
6. Have your loan status certified
Once you have identified all of your qualifying loans and determined your credit, your college’s Financial Aid Office can review your contract and worksheet, perform any necessary calculations, and certify your loan status.
Before visiting your Financial Aid Office to complete this step, be sure you have:
- a. Printed a copy of your contract;
- b. Had your graduation status certified by the Registrar;
- c. Completed the section on page two of your contract called, “Loans that are part of my financial aid package;” and
- d. Completed and printed the worksheet referenced above.
Bring this documentation with you (a-d) when you ask the Financial Aid Office to certify your loan status.
Once you have received this certification, the role of your community college in this process ends.
Additional Steps that You Must Take to Claim Your Tax Credit
The role of your community college ends at this point of the Opportunity Maine process. Nonetheless, the Opportunity Maine law requires you to undertake the following additional tasks.
1. Send your vompleted contract to Secretary of State
Once your College has certified both your graduation and loan status, and your contract is complete, you must send it to the Secretary of State at 148 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333. Questions about this portion of the process may be directed to the Maine Secretary of State at 207-626-8400 or sos.office@maine.gov.
Again, your community college plays no role in this part of the process.
2. Claim your credit in your state tax filing
As of July 2008, the State of Maine has not yet issued a tax credit form for this program. Presumably, such a form will be available when it comes time for you to claim your credit. Maine tax forms are typically available at http://www.maine.gov/revenue/forms/homepage.html.
Questions about this portion of the process should be directed to Maine Revenue Services. The Maine Taxpayer Service Center provides walk-in taxpayer assistance at 26 Edison Drive in Augusta, Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. A phone directory for Maine Revenue Services is also available at http://www.maine.gov/revenue/homepagefiles/telephon.html.
Again, your community college plays no role in this part of the process.