Go to your school’s financial aid office and ask to sign up for the Opportunity Maine program. You’ll get an Opportunity Contract, which keeps track of your loan information and helps you understand what you need to do to get your tax credit.

All Maine college students are eligible. As long as you live in Maine during the school year while you attend college, you can sign up. You could move from Texas to Maine on your first day of college and still be eligible! After graduation, you can claim the credit any year you make loan payments and live and work in Maine.

Nothing. If you don’t follow the terms of the Contract, you lose your eligibility for the Opportunity Maine program, but that’s all. Signing an Opportunity Contract will never make you worse off than you would have been.

No. If you decide to leave Maine to finish your degree, you simply lose your eligibility for the tax credit. If you leave Maine after earning your degree here, you can’t claim the credit while you’re gone, but can start claiming it again if you move back. Opportunity Maine rewards you if you stay, but doesn’t punish you if you leave.

You are still eligible if you study abroad or out of state as part of a Maine college’s academic program. Just make sure you live in Maine during the school year the rest of the time!

The higher your student debt, the higher the tax credit. The average tax credit will be $2,100 each year, but the students with the highest debts will be able to claim up to $5,500 each year. That’s $55,000 in loan repayment assistance! The maximum credit for associate’s degree earners will be about $1,500 each year.

No. You just have to finish an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in any field.

You can sign up, but your tax credit will be reduced based on how much of your coursework was done before January 2008. For example, if you have finished one-fourth of the coursework for your degree as of January 2008, you’ll be able to get a tax credit for three-fourths of what you pay in loan payments after you graduate.

No. Part time students are eligible, and get the same benefits as full-time students.

No. You are still eligible, even if you get deferment or forbearance for your loans. You can start claiming the credit when you start making payments again.

No. Some kinds of loan consolidation make you ineligible for the Opportunity Maine program. However, it does no harm to sign up for the Opportunity Maine program now, even if you lose your eligibility later.

No. You must finish your degree, and do all of your coursework through Maine colleges.

Yes. You can transfer as much as you like, as long as you ultimately earn your degree from a Maine school, and all your coursework is done through Maine schools..

Your financial aid office will let you know about any procedures that your school has adopted. (1) Once you get your degree, you have to make sure your Opportunity Contract specifies the source, principal amount, interest rate and other terms of loans that are part of your financial aid package. (2) Then you have to file an electronic copy of your Opportunity Contract with the Maine Secretary of State’s Office. Your financial aid office and the Opportunity Maine web site will have information on how to do that.

You can claim the tax credit on your personal income tax return. If your employer is making student loan payments for you, then the employer can claim the credit on its return. Make sure you keep a copy of your Opportunity Contract and records of loan payments!

No. You can sign up for other loan forgiveness programs, and sign up for Opportunity Maine too in case those other programs don’t work out.

No. Signing up can only help you. The worst thing that can happen is that you lose your eligibility.