Allocate your 2025 Montana Income taxes to fund scholarships at no cost to you!

Dear Skola family, friends and supporters,

The Montana Legislature has renewed this incredible opportunity to allow taxpayers to allocate a portion of their 2025 Montana state income tax obligation to fund scholarships for deserving students. This year $6,000,000 will be allocated statewide on a first come, first serve basis to give dollar-for-dollar tax credits to any donors participating in this program. The registration portal opens at 10:00am on Jan 15th, 2025. Once all the allocated funds are claimed, no more credits will be granted. Funds must be received by participating SSOs to be registered (pledges do not qualify).

Please contact impact@theskola.org to donate!

With Graditude,

The Skola

How to donate

We can accept cash, check, ACH and wire transfer. To register your credit, we’ll need the following information -

  • Name and donation amount

  • Mailing and physical address

  • Last 4 digits of your SSN or business FEIN

  • email address

Estimate your 2025 tax obligation - https://smartasset.com/taxes/montana-tax-calculator

The Student Scholarship Organization Tax Credit is available to taxpayers who donate to an approved Student Scholarship Organization (SSO) to provide scholarships for eligible students to attend instruction offered by a qualified education provider.

Eligibility

Individual and business taxpayers who donate directly to an approved SSO can claim the Student Scholarship Organization Tax Credit. A list of approved SSOs can be found on the Education Donations Portal at EducationDonations.mt.gov.

The department must preapprove the tax credit before a taxpayer may claim it. To gain preapproval, the SSO must report the taxpayer's donation on the Education Donation Portal to reserve the taxpayer's tax credit. If there is enough aggregate credit remaining and the donor has not made a donation of more than $200,000 for purposes of the tax credit, the credit will be preapproved. The SSO will provide the taxpayer with a tax credit receipt that includes the approved amount of the tax credit and a confirmation number. This number must be reported on the donor’s tax return when claiming the credit.

Benefit

The credit is equal to the amount of the donation up to $200,000.

Credits are available on a first-come, first-served basis until the total credits claimed reaches the aggregate threshold for the year.

In 2025, the aggregate amount of the available credit is $6,000,000. If 80% of 2025's credits are claimed, the aggregate amount will increase by 20% to 7,200,000 in 2026. If it is not met, the aggregate amount remains the same as the previous year. The credit's aggregate threshold is tracked on the Education Donation Portal homepage.

Carryover

The credit is nonrefundable but may be carried forward for up to three years.

Forms

Learn more about the SSO Tax Credit in the Tax Credits for Qualified Education Contributions Guide.

Additional information from the Montana Department of Revenue 

Related Laws

**Disclaimer:  The Skola, nor any of its representatives, staff, Board members are not tax or legal professionals. Please consult your tax advisor for further guidance.