President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package, passed on Feb. 17, includes a “Textbook Tax Credit,” designed to help all middle- and low-income students get money back on textbooks and other course materials.

The credit is part of the overall American Opportunity Tax Credit, which extends to a multitude of areas for tax refunds.

To be eligible for a refund, a student’s family must earn below $80,000 if a single parent contributes to household income and $160,000 if two parents contribute, said Charles Schmidt, head of public relations for the National Association of College Stores, which operates out of Oberlin, Ohio.

The maximum amount available to get back is $2,500, and if the student doesn’t make enough to pay federal income tax, this figure is reduced to $1,000.

This plan is retroactive for the spring 2009 semester, so start scrounging for your receipts and save them. To get money refunded, receipts should be kept and documented on yearly tax return forms; this is not a cash back policy where a student would receive full refund from the original bookstore.

Concerning what falls under the term “other course materials,” Schmidt was animated in saying an item refunded under this return policy must actually appear on a professor’s syllabus for the particular class. This includes textbooks, course packs and e-texts … not pens and notebooks and like materials which are universal course requirements. If you need a standard calculator for class, you can get a refund on it, for example, but not if you purchase a graphing calculator when a standard model would suffice.

The NACS is in charge of 3,100 college bookstores nationwide, yet this tax credit does not apply only to those stores, but all bookstores at which course materials can be purchased. Materials from a store like Mando Books will still be fully refundable. This dispels fears that the tax credit will hamper some businesses and improve profit for selected others.