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Alaska2026Passed Legislature

SB171

SB 171: Updates to Education Tax Credits and Child Care Assistance

Last scannedSep 22, 2026, 12:32 AM

In one sentence

This bill increases the total limit on education tax credits for businesses from $3 million to $10 million, adds new ways for taxpayers to get credits by supporting child care facilities or helping employees with costs, and renames the day care assistance program.

What it does

  • Increases the combined annual limit for various business education tax credits from $3 million to $10 million per taxpayer or affiliated group of companies.
  • Allows taxpayers who pay insurance taxes (AS 21.09) or oil and gas production taxes (AS 21.66) to claim a credit for expenses operating child care facilities in the state for their employees' children.
  • Allows these same taxpayers to claim a credit for cash or equipment contributions given to nonprofit child care facilities attended by their employees' children.
  • Allows these taxpayers to claim a credit for payments made directly to employees to help cover child care costs incurred in the state.
  • Renames the 'day care assistance program' to the 'child care assistance program'.
  • Updates rules relating to several existing education tax credits, including those for insurance, income, oil and gas producers, property taxes, mining businesses, fisheries businesses, and fisheries resource landing taxes.

Who it affects

  • Businesses that pay state taxes under specific chapters such as AS 21.09 (insurance) or AS 43 (income tax).
  • Employees of these taxpayers who receive payments to help with child care costs.
  • Nonprofit corporations and facilities operating child care centers in the state.
  • Schools, colleges, universities, vocational training programs, and Alaska Native cultural program providers receiving cash or equipment donations.

Limits and unknowns

  • The official text provided does not state a specific effective date when these changes will begin.
  • The new child care credits described in Section 1 apply specifically to taxpayers paying insurance or oil and gas taxes; the excerpt for income tax education credit (Section 4) is truncated before listing similar child care provisions.

Plain language

Terms to know

Tax Credit
An amount of money a taxpayer can subtract directly from the taxes they owe to the government.
Affiliated Group
A group of related companies treated as one unit for tax purposes, sharing the same total credit limit.

Official record

Sources

Source checked
Official bill pageIntroduced textCurrent bill text
Read the official summary

CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE; TAX CREDITS An Act relating to the insurance tax education credit; relating to the income tax education credit; relating to the oil or gas producer education credit; relating to the property tax education credit; relating to the mining business education credit; relating to the fisheries business education credit; relating to the fisheries resource landing tax education credit; renaming the day care assistance program the child care assistance program; relating to the child care assistance program and the child care grant program; and providing for an effective date.

Official activity

Bill history

  1. (S) REFERRED TO EDUCATION857
  2. (S) GOVERNOR'S TRANSMITTAL LETTER857
  3. (S) FN1: INDETERMINATE(REV)857
  4. (S) EDC, FIN857
  5. (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS857