<p>If D gets the RA position, school will pay board plan 14 meals/week + significant chunk of room charges (but not all)+ a small monthly stipend. Any idea how this is handled from a FA perspective? From a federal tax perspective?</p>
<p>You might ask the school how they handle it, what tax documents do they send out? The stipend is probably taxable, not sure about the rest.</p>
<p>I found this online:</p>
<p>Campus resident advisers generally do not have to pay income tax on these benefits. Housing is excluded when residing in the dorm is a condition of being an R.A., and meals are excluded when furnished by the college for the convenience of the college. Refer your accountant to IRS Publication 525.</p>
<p>I am assuming that the value of room and board was not reported by the college to your daughter on a Form W-2 or 1099. If it was then something else must be going on, and you should contact the school’s bursar and ask about it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info somemom, D1 is in this situation this year. I’ll have to see how it ends up being reported, I’d assumed it would come out as earnings on a W-2 with taxes due, so any exclusions she might get would be great.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tax info Somemom. Any experience about how it affected financial aid? Does it lower the COA?</p>
<p>I guess it would make sense that if rm& bd was not being charged, that it would be deducted from COA.</p>
<p>There are actually a couple different ways to handle it. Check with the school to see how they do it.</p>
<p>I was an RA in college. We had to pay taxes on our monthly stipend. I didn’t get room and board, but that also depends on how your college handles it. If it’s a dollar amount that they deposit then she might have to pay federal taxes; if it’s simply a waiver or reduction, then she might not. The school didn’t include this in my financial aid calculations.</p>
<p>It was not counted in my D1s FA either, she isn’t getting a stipend, but rather room and some board. Like I said, I guess we’ll just wait for the paperwork to come in the next month or so and take it from there.</p>
<p>I don’t think the finaid dept talks to the housing people to find out if you are an RA, your COA is still the amount the college states, you are using the RA position to cover part of it, though I assume if a person had grants in excess of tuition and personal expenses, there could be a discussion as to whether they would get a refund or if the RA free R&B would be deducted from the COA due the student. In the vast majority of cases it is loans anyway, so it would only be a small percentage of people to whom that applies.</p>
<p>RA housing stipends do count in financial aid packaging where I work. I’m not 100% sure what we do, to be honest (large school & finaid officers don’t handle that aspect), but I know it’s a factor … since one of the managers does RA packaging.</p>
<p>Thanks, Kelsmom. I guess I’ll ask D to query FA office at her school.</p>