Taxpayers May Receive Tuition Credit

Two tuition tax-credit bills, one passed in the Senate on Friday and the other pending in the Senate Finance Committee, will most help those middle-class students who cannot meet tuition costs and cannot qualify for financial aid, Senate aides said yesterday.

Under a bill sponsored by Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.), taxpayers will be able to deduct up to $250 per student from their federal income taxes.

Taxpayers would be able to subtract up to $500 per student under a bill sponsored by Sens. Robert Packwood (R-Ore.) and Daniel P. Moynihan (D-N.Y.), pending before the Finance Committee.

Under both bills, to be eligible for the tax credit, an individual must be a part-time or full-time student at an elementary or secondary school, a vocational school, a college or university, or any business or trade school that meets the basic accrediting requirements of the U.S. Office of Education.

L. Fred Jewett '57, dean of admissions, said yesterday that although the tuition credits are not very substantial, they will aid an income group of great concern to Harvard admissions, the middle class. However, the tax credits will not prompt an increase in the amount of applications from middle-class students, Jewett said.

The bills would not pay a major portion of a student's tuition, but would give a needed financial boost to those paying high tuition fees, thus opening up a wider range of school and college opportunities to students, Skip Priest, an assistant to Packwood, said yesterday.

In drafting the bills the senators sidered by the Senate committee and are voted on in the House they will probably merge to make up one provision of an upcoming tax reform package that will become effective before 1980, Priest said.

After the two tax credit bills are considered by the Senate Finance Committee and are voted on in the House they will probably merge to make up one provision of an upcoming tax reform package that will become effective before 1980, Priest said.