Not surprisingly, most college students dread tax season. With midterms, essays and presentations, tax forms seem like just another addition to an already piling workload.

But this year, those forms may be worth a lot more to students — possibly more than $2,000.

A new education tax-credit program, called the American Opportunity Credit (AOC), offers a higher maximum annual credit than the two existing programs, the Hope Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit. With the right qualifications, a student could be entitled to tax refund of up to $2,500 from the Internal Revenue Service.

“In the economic downturn now, any [tax credit] money [that students] can get back … can help the famil[ies] of the student[s],” said Lichang Wong, program manager of student tax for Student Fiscal Services. “That’s why [the government] is looking for ways to increase the tax credit.”

The AOC was introduced as part of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It applies to the first four years of post-secondary education.

If you pay or take out loans for tuition, textbooks and other related education expenses, and you have an annual income of less than $80,000, you could be entitled to the maximum tax credit. You would get the full $2,500, based on 100 percent of the first $2,000 paid for education expenses, plus 25 percent of the next $2,000.

Even if you don’t earn enough to have to pay federal income tax, you may still be able to receive 40 percent of the maximum AOC tax credit, which equals $1,000.

However, let’s say that you’re too busy keeping your GPA up to be able to hold a job, and you don’t have your own income or pay your own taxes. In that case, you could also ask your parents to claim the tax credit for you. If they pay for your annual college expenses, and they jointly earn less than $160,000 a year, they can obtain the full $2,500.

You could consider applying for the other two tax credit programs, but the AOC may present the best outcome for undergraduates.

“It’s a better deal for students, because it has more money,” said Diane Cooley, assistant director of Student Fiscal Services.

To be eligible for the Hope Credit program, a UW student would need to have a close family member attending an eligible educational institution in a Midwestern disaster area, such as New Orleans. This new requirement came into effect this year, as applicants file for the 2009 tax year. Even then, the maximum credit you could get from this program is $1,800, and it only applies for the first two years of post-secondary education.

Likewise, you could also try for the Lifetime Learning Credit, but the maximum credit for that program is $2,000, a few hundred short of the maximum under the AOC program.

Cooley believes that, although it may be tedious, students should pay attention to the potential benefits of filing their taxes.

“It’s amazing to me how few students are aware of these opportunities,” Cooley said.

Student Fiscal Services plans to hold informational tax sessions through April 15.

Reach reporter Joanna Nolasco at news@dailyuw.com.