For parents of college students, nothing is academic about April 15.

There are three primary tax breaks that can ease the pain of tuition bills: the Hope and Lifetime credits, as well as a tuition deduction boosted to as much as $4,000 this year.

The trouble is you can’t claim more than one per student.

Here is the CliffsNotes summary:

n The Hope Credit: This is worth up to $1,500 per student in their first two years of higher education. It rebates 100 percent of the first $1,000 you spend on tuition and certain fees and 50 percent of the next $1,000.

-The Lifetime Learning Credit: This one kicks back up to $2,000, based on 20 percent of up to $10,000 in tuition and fees. Unlike the Hope credit, you can claim it for an unlimited number of years, even if you’re just brushing up your job skills.

-The deduction for higher education expenses: This allows parents to write off up to $4,000, up $1,000 from 2003.

Credits generally are more powerful than deductions because they reduce your tax bill dollar for dollar. But this write-off is advantageous because it’s an “above-the-line” deduction that reduces your adjusted gross income on the front side of your 1040 form.

That not only saves you from itemizing on Schedule A, but it also means your deductions will be sheltered if your income hits the point where your miscellaneous deductions take a haircut.

Picking the right one

For example, if you have $2,000 in qualifying bills, you can save $1,500 with the Hope credit but only $400 with the Lifetime credit.

If you have more than one student on your dole, you can take one Hope credit for each student but only one Lifetime credit overall.

How much you save with the deduction will vary with your tax bracket.

The most important factor often is your adjusted gross income. For example, joint filers will gradually lose some or all of the Hope and Lifetime credits when their income hits $85,000.

Then there’s the write-off for higher education. It has “cliff” phase-outs. As a result, joint filers with incomes not more than $130,000 can deduct $4,000, while those with incomes from $130,001 to $160,000 will get only $2,000.

Those with incomes even $1 higher than $160,000 will save nothing.