Maine Educational Opportunity Tax Credit Worksheet

2015 Educational Opportunity Tax Credit Worksheet for

Maine Resident & Part-year Resident Individuals - Instructions, continued

Line 2. Enter the monthly eligible education loan payment due during the 2015 tax year. This is most likely the amount on your

monthly payment voucher or electronic bill. Enter the total monthly amount due, even if part of it was paid by someone else. Enter only

the required amount due, excluding any accelerated payment.

Line 3. Enter the monthly amount paid toward your eligible education loan during the year, regardless of whether you or your employer

made the payments.

Note – Lines 2 and 3: Upon review of the credit claimed, Maine Revenue Services may ask you to provide documentation from each

lender showing the monthly payments due and the monthly payments made during your 2015 tax year.

Line 4. Enter the smallest of lines 1, 2 and 3. This is the monthly amount allowed toward the credit.

Line 5. Eligible education loan payments include only those payments made during your 2015 tax year while you were a resident

of Maine working in Maine or were a Maine resident deployed for military service in the U.S. Armed Forces. Individuals unemployed

during the entire Maine residency period do not qualify for the credit. A self-employed person may be eligible for the credit for

educational opportunity for individuals and/or the credit for employers if the self-employed person had employees during the tax year.

For more information on the employer credit, see the Credit for Educational Opportunity Worksheet for Employers.

Enter on line 5a the number of months during the 2015 tax year you were a Maine resident. With respect to the months on line 5a,

enter on line 5b the number of months you worked in Maine or were deployed for military service. With respect to the months on line

5b, enter on line 5c the number of months you and your employer made eligible education loan payments. For example, if your tax

year is the 2015 calendar year, you were a Maine resident for the entire year 2015, you started working in Maine on August 1, 2015 and

made six eligible education loan payments beginning July 2015, you would enter 12 on line 5a, 5 on line 5b and 5 on line 5c. In this

example, there were only ﬁ ve months during the year (August – December) that you met all of the requirements.

Line 8. Modiﬁ ed gross credit. Multiply line 6 by line 7c. This is the amount of education loan payments eligible for the credit.

Line 9. Enter the number of credit hours you earned toward your degree after 2007. If you started school after 2007, skip lines 9,

10 and 11 and enter on line 12 the amount from line 8.

Line 10. Enter the total number of credit hours earned toward your degree. This number should be included on your transcript.

Line 11. Divide line 9 by line 10. This is the portion of your degree earned after 2007 and is the basis for your credit.

Line 12. Multiply line 8 by the ratio on line 11. If you started school after 2007, enter on line 12 the amount from line 8. This is the

gross amount of the credit for eligible payments you made during your 2015 tax year.

Line 13. Adjustment for transferring students. If you began your college studies out-of-state after 2007 and transferred to a Maine

college after December 31, 2012 and earned no more than 30 credits toward your degree out-of-state, you may still be eligible for a

limited income tax credit. If you earned up to 30 credits at an accredited non-Maine community college, college or university before

transferring to an accredited Maine community college, college or university, enter 0.75 on this line if you earned a bachelor’s degree or

0.50 if you earned an associate's degree. If you earned all credits in Maine, enter 1.00.

Line 14. Current year credit. Complete line 14a if line C is checked (your degree is an approved STEM degree) and enter the result

on Form 1040ME, Schedule A, line 3. This amount is fully refundable. Complete line 14b if line C is not checked (your degree is not

an approved STEM degree).

Line 15. Carryforward of unused credit from 2014. Enter the amount of any unused credit from tax year 2014. This would be the

unused credit amount included on your 2014 credit worksheet, line 14. If this is the ﬁ rst year you are claiming the credit, enter zero. If

line C is checked, also enter this amount on Form 1040ME, Schedule A, line 11. This amount of the credit is not refundable. If line C

is not checked, go to line 16.

Line 16. If line C is not checked, add lines 14b and 15 and enter the total on line 16 and on Form 1040ME, Schedule A, line 11. This

credit amount is not refundable.

Carryforward amount. The credit amount on line 14b that you cannot use this year may be carried forward to future tax years for up to

10 years. You may also carry forward the amount on line 15 that you cannot use this year, as long as the carryforward year is within the

10-year period following the year the credit was calculated. Keep a record of the unused credit amount available for future tax years.

Maine Educational Opportunity Tax Credit Worksheet - 2015 Page 4

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