Educational Improvement Tax Credits (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credits (OSTC)

Mercy receives funding from companies through two state tax-credit programs. The Educational Improvement Tax Credits (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credits (OSTC) allow businesses that pay certain taxes to direct these monies to their charity of choice such as Mercy School For Special Learning. The Diocese of Allentown’s Eastern Pennsylvania Scholarship Foundation (EPSF) collects EITC and OSTC funds and allocates them to schools throughout the Diocese if those schools are not specifically designated by the donating business. Every cent of an EITC or OSTC contributions goes directly to the school designated by the business donor.

 

The application process and maximum tax credits the business is able to apply for are the same for EITC and OSTC. OSTC provides scholarships for K – 12 (no Pre-K programs). There is a residency requirement for student eligibility for OSTC. The student must reside within the boundaries of one of the 15% lowest performing schools in the state as designated by the PA Department of Education. Also, in allocating the OSTC scholarships, priority must be given to students whose families are at or below 185% of the federal poverty level (family of 4 must have less than $43,000 in annual income).

 

Special Purpose Entities (SPE)

Over the past two years, Special Purpose Entities (SPE) have allowed qualifying individuals participate in this same program. Chris Kuhn,  a Finance Executive at Olympus North America, is a big proponent of the SPE program.

He jumped on as a participant immediately. “This is a no-brainer,” Kuhn said. “I find this program to be a great vehicle to provide Mercy and its kids with financial assistance while also getting the benefit of a 90% tax credit on my PA State Income taxes. I encourage people to consult with their tax advisors to see how they may take advantage of this win-win program,” Kuhn said. During a typical school year, Mercy School will be able to award over $250,000 in scholarship funds generated by this tax credit program! To all business entities and individuals who have ever contributed to Mercy School through the EPSF tax credit system, either as businesses, or individually through the SPE program, on behalf of all of our Mercy families who have benefitted, we say THANK YOU!

 

We’d like to thank the following corporations and businesses who supported Mercy through their EITC or OSTC contributions:

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EITC:

•  ABE Doors & Windows

• Bethlehem Business Forms

• Dunne Manning, Inc.

• Lehigh Valley Rail Management

• Miller Searles Bahr & Wills, LLC

• Precision Medical, Inc.

• S & K Leasing

• Waste Management

• Yocco’s

• Zapp Properties, Inc. 

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OSTC:

• Lehigh Gas

• Miller, Searles, Bahr & Wills LLC

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The Mercy School For Special Learning is a non-profit 501c3.

For more information, please contact Mark Napierkowski at Mercy School at 610-797-8242 or mark@mercyspeciallearning.org.