Another thing, back when I was in college I washed dishes in the school cafeteria for money. I was paid AND I paid taxes on my income.
Yet a graduate student who is paid a scholarship and a stipend to teach somehow or to elsewise work for the college does NOT pay any taxes? I dont get it?
Did your dishwashing job add skills useful to your career in your field?
Keep in mind that one alternative used to be that the grad students were forced to do the work for free! Letting the students not pay taxes means that the schools could offer cheaper assistantships. I.e., this was a way to force schools to pay proper wages (as long as you don’t play sports) without hitting the schools too badly financially. It is all about the financial situation of the schools. Not the students.
When I as getting offers from grad schools they fell into two categories: Ones where I paid taxes and ones where I didn’t. The latter ones had noticeably less pay.
So the schools are going to have to shell out more money to make up for the taxes. It’s the schools being hurt. This is known to one and all on Capitol Hill and the people there in favor of the change like this consequence.
Also, did you report any free meals at the cafeteria and pay taxes on them?
Do people who get an employee discount from work report the savings and pay taxes on them?
It is incredibly weird how some people have a bug up their nose about this one particular employee benefit. One that was actually legally spelled out by law as opposed to many, many other benefits that people duck taxes on quasi-legally at best.
Asked and answered above. They pay taxes on the money they earn from their assistantships. They don’t pay income on their scholarships.
My son estimates his federal income taxes will increase by 145%. No idea whether the state will also classify his scholarship as income.
This whole idea is a joke. At my University I make about 30k but the “tuition” charge is more like 70k, so what am I gonna pay 7k extra on the tuition? That would make my situation not liveable (I live in a really expensive area because I have to).
Honestly I don’t even know what the tuition charge is for, since after you stop taking classes you just work for a guy who you barely see and he gets his name on your publications… So who does the tuition go to anyway?
This is just another way to fuck the life of the people who do the most work for the smallest reward, the grad students. The universities fuck with us because the can and so do politicians. That’s right exploit the people who work for nothing and let’s give money to investors instead… The best thing that could happen is a war because at least then people start to appreciate science and give some money back where it should belong.
I’m not a tax accountant, or any sort of accountant, but don’t most states just start with your adjusted gross income from your federal return? And, wouldn’t the tuition be part of that AGI? If so, then the states would have to rewrite their tax code to allow you to deduct those amounts from your AGI.
I welcome correction on that point.
This really comes down to taxing people who have little or no money with which to PAY taxes on something that has no real value until after they’ve finished with it. Not too practical…or logical.
Correct on the first part, at least for every state I’ve looked at. As for “wouldn’t the tuition be part of that AGI?” part, it depends on how they rewrite the 1040, but that’s probably true. And if a state adjusts AGI, they can do it after the fact, but usually start with the Federal as a “base.”