This was on the tax thread but given its relevance to this forum, IMO it should get its own thread (mods, please remove if I’m wrong).
As a PhD student, this would TRIPLE my taxable income and throw me into a much higher tax bracket.
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Republican-Tax-Proposal-Gets/241662
Removing the deduction for college loan interest, which is also in the new bill, will also be costly.
Ugh! Tax on tuition waivers would certainly hit my grad student son. He is in a high COA area, and his stipend is barely enough to live on as it is. At least now in his second year he is considered a state resident, so his waiver is for the in-state rate.
If this provision eventually is put into the tax code, I guess the Bank of Mom and Dad will be helping him pay the tax.
Ugh!!!
This would have immediate, devastating consequences for all graduate students with tuition waivers (PhD but also top law school and MD/PHD students) as well as for college students.
If you add the local/state deduction bit it’d truly impact a lot of people negatively to catastrophically.
The bill has not been presented. I would not put the cart before the horse until there is a concrete bill.
Better to know now what’s in it than waiting for it to be presented and shoved through in a marathon session.
As I mentioned in the other thread, what happened in 1986 when they started taxing RAs was that the first year, the grad students took the hit, but after that, the schools just increased the cost to grants of funding students and the students got a bigger stipend. I suspect the same thing will happen here if this passes. It’s very bad though since the professor friends I have tell me that much funding is drying up in the first place.
If they didn’t do that, it would be very hard for graduate students to survive. In STEM at least, since most are foreigners, and can’t get loans, they most likely won’t be able to come at all without the bumpup.
Agreed. A Uni just has to change the label of the tuition waiver to a full merit scholarship. Voila, tax free.
How many undergrads receive a tuition waiver for being a TA?
I believe myos is talking about the bill more generally but I could be wrong.
It isn’t law yet, but people speaking up to their representatives and senators can help keep it from become law. Specific stories are exactly what can help. Huge tax increase for my kid who is a PhD student.
I was a PhD (engineering) student back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It was at Stanford, in the even-then expensive bay area. My stipend was enough to live a comfortable, frugal, life. Jug wine and spaghetti and meatballs parties. I can’t imagine having to pay tax on the tuition waiver. Already these days my DH (also a Stanford PhD) and I have not encouraged our kids to pursue PhDs. The academic climate just isn’t the same as it was then.
I live well in a low COL area. I chose to live some distance from school so I could own a house instead of renting an apartment for the same price.
I have absolutely no idea what I will do if this passes. I hope my uni will help us but we simply do not have that kind of wiggle room in our budget.
^ that’s the issue… Public universities in particular have suffered such budget cuts in terms of per student funding compared to the 80s that they simply can’t do a bumpup (if such a thing could even be approved).
Is anyone actually surprised that universities and their students are being targeted for tax increases to help pay a little toward tax cuts for big businesses, the plutocrat-level wealthy, and estates/inheritors?
It does feel like the tax proposal is designed to help Trump supporters and punish Trump opponents.
^The super rich universities are also the most generous with financial aid, and I haven’t heard of any kid from a family making more than 280K a year wondering “if college is really worth it anymore”. (HYPSM actually have FA for families up to 300K income and they’re tuition-free up to 125K income).
As for graduates who will be struggling to pay off loans: not if they didn’t make their parents take loans for them… 31K (the limit students can borrow on their own) can reasonably be repaid over 10 years on a college graduate salary.
Anyway, universities aren’t targeted for tax increases. STUDENTS are targeted, which is very different.
While many do not mind paying more taxes to fund government activities, many of them do object to paying more taxes to partially pay for tax cuts for the plutocrat-wealthy, big business, and estates/inheritors (i.e. taxing the rich (and students who are not necessarily rich) to give to the super-rich).
Don’t mind paying taxes. Not at all. I’d even happily pay these taxes if it meant universal health care, better education, and clean freaking drinking water.
But these tax increases go towards giving massive tax cut to the rich and corporations.
I wish everyone would stop with this nonsense. As a liberal, I do not mind at all paying high taxes for a robust welfare state but instead the money is going towards corporate and wealthy welfare.
^This thread isn’t about the rise in tuition at American colleges (which no ones denies and has been greater at public universities than at private ones). If we veer off the topic (how the tax cuts/increases affect students) this thread will be closed.
However, please read the proposal. You’ll see that STUDENTS are targeted for tax increases (thus, indrectly, middle class parents) - to transfer riches to people making 1 million or more (one tax cut is specifically for people who own 10 million in real estate or more.) You may 100% agree with the idea that money should be transfered to the top 1% but if you believe what you wrote above about squeezed students and middle class families, then you should disagree that the transfer of money should come from students and middle class parents’ pockets - and this is what the thread is about.
How does reducing the amount universities have to run their “business” lead to them charging less for tuition? I don’t see the connection.