Every leftist source is in all out attack mode, over tax cuts. AARP=leftist. Preys on gullible elderly.
Graduate students that get tuition forgiveness for teaching, are demonstrating--because such compensation becomes taxable.
My great niece Abby is currently working on her Ph.D. in History at Temple University. She is a teaching and research assistant at the university but only earning a meager stipend only for being a teaching assistant (she is not compensated for the hours she puts in as a research assistant) that barely covers her living expenses – she rents a small off campus apartment along with a roommate and had to give up her car because she could no longer afford it, instead taking public transit, but she does get a tuition waiver. But in exchange for that waiver and the small stipend, she also does not reap any financial benefits of anything she writes that gets published or for anything more than travel expenses when she makes any presentations for the university. I would also point out that while getting her BA and then her Masters, she was working at least one, sometimes two jobs while going to school full time to help fund her education and utilizing scholarships, grants and minimizing as best she could any student loan debt. And also while getting her Masters, she was an unpaid teaching and research assistant.
I asked her what she thought of this and how it would affect her and this was her answer:
This Bill, if passed, would repeal the section of the current tax code that pertains to tuition waivers.
Once that section is repealed, my tuition waiver (which I earned through all of my hard work to this point in academia) could be considered taxable income.
The problem with that is that we never see these waivers enter our checking accounts at any point -- they are simply bills that we do not have to pay, justified by our academic achievement and employment as Teaching Assistants (for which my 20 hrs/week are already taxed).
If that came to fruition, I would be someone making less than 20k a year in the 40k tax bracket, which could potentially make it very difficult to continue my program at all.
And my response to her (and you):
That's my understanding as well and I think this stinks to high heaven!
FWIW it also eliminates employer provided tuition reimbursement – the up to $5,250 of tax-free employer tuition assistance per year. And I have known many people who advanced their careers while also benefiting their employers by advancing their education and skills. I was planning on enrolling in some courses next year utilizing my employer’s tuition assistance program but that would be down the drain for me if this bill passes.
Oh and it also eliminates the student loan interest deduction and also the benefit that many universities offer to their employees, allowing their children to get discounted tuition, which will now be considered a taxable fringe benefit.
While a lot of the articles I’ve been reading focus mostly on how this hurts STEM, and for a country lagging so far behind in this area, it is a glaring inconsistency in what is the often stated goal – more Americans entering STEM fields and less need for overseas outsourcing and HB1 Visas, and what the reality is and will be under this plan as how many will be able to afford to attend graduate school; it hurts many other areas as well, not only your field but also in areas like finance and economics….
But then again Trumpy did say during the campaign that he “loves the poorly educatedâ€. Indeed, he does.
