– Q. How does one calculate tzeddaka on the sale of a house? I’m assuming that some expenses could be deducted such as mortgage and taxes and maintenance but not consumables such as gas and electricity. Would paying tuition for my kids be considered tzedaka? What about their weddings? Do I have to give all of the tzedakah at once or can I invest some of it and spread out the payments?
Does it matter if the kids go to a university or a Jewish school?

A. On question 475 ; “Paying Tuition with Maaser Money” we wrote:
“Q. Am I allowed to give my maaser money to my parents so that they can use it for my tuition? Thank you

To what we answered: “See Shulchan Aruch and Remoh (C.M. 207: 2 and Nesivos Hamishpot ibid. 2), in regards to whom do the wages of a working girl, still at home and supported by the father, belong. Assuming the most likely scenario that the father willingly gives away his rights to those wages to his daughter.

Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a suggest that when the father could afford to pay the tuition, it is best for the daughter to donate the maser monies directly to the institution and request from them if they would kindly and benevolently, from their own free will, deduct that amount from her tuition or agree that they would accept monies that were raised on their behalf as tuition.

The reason being is that you cannot use maser money for payments you are already obligated to compensate, as the Chofetz Chaim in Ahavas Chessed (Ch. 19) writes because “it is like paying one’s own debts from maaser funds”.

Although girls schooling and tuition was in former years seen as optional since in Halacha there is no inherent parental obligation to educate girls in a school, that is not the case today (Igrois Moishe Y.D. 2: 113), therefore giving your maser money to your parents may not be of help as they can not use it for paying your tuition (assuming they are able to pay tuition).

See also the following questions; 357- Calculating Maaser on a mortgage, 3332 – The Giving Answer and 2537- Help Is Here.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a.