<p>"I would like to see a bunch of folks who are going to directly benefit from any of this stimulus money."</p>
<p>There's a real estate developer that's been appointed to dole out the stimulus money in Massachusetts. He's getting paid $150,000 a year for that job. I guess the bunch of people that will get money from the package are connected political hacks.</p>
<p>The stimulus bill now on the table includes a $2,500 TAX CREDIT to anyone with income under $150K (per family) and smaller amounts as income goes up. It's a big help to a middle class family with a child in a state university (about 10% of the cost in my state); less, of course, if your child goes to a private college but still welcome. It is less than I need but more than I expected and I'm glad to get it.</p>
<p>Do you have a source on the tax credit?</p>
<p>The Bill(s) are changing so fast it's hard to keep up.</p>
<p>Here are my sources:
San Jose Mercury News: "[The bill includes] about $13 billion to provide a $2,500 expanded tax credit for college tuition and related expenses for 2009 and 2010. The credit is phased out for couples making more than $160,000."
<a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11679962%5B/url%5D">http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11679962</a></p>
<p>LA Times: "Eligible college students would also receive higher Pell Grants, thanks to a $400 boost in the maximum grant, to $5,250."
Here's</a> who will benefit from stimulus accord - Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>As I stated earlier, the stimulus bill is designed to provide jobs to those people who either have lost a job or whose companies are in danger of going belly-up and therefore will soon lose their jobs. Over 4 million people have lost their jobs since January 2008--2 million (half) have lost their jobs within the past four months.</p>
<p>While it may not seem to help most people directly, putting money back into an economy where the spending has basically "dropped out" and where people are unable to get credit since the banks are refusing to lend will help all businesses, and will hopefully allow businesses who would otherwise go broke to keep their own people employed.</p>
<p>Others on here have said it already--the country is not in a position to pay for a Direct bailout to everyone--that is socialism--and such a plan would simply not work--and thankfully, is not Obama's plan. </p>
<p>The Obama plan is--and always has been--to focus on helping those who lost their jobs to get back to work, thus Indirectly, benefitted everyone in the country in total.</p>
<p>P.S. I might also add that the Obama plan is, to a large extent, a plan similar to that employed by Franklin Roosevelt back during the 1930s depression era. Both are focused on deficit spending in order to provide jobs for infrastructure improvements. FDR's program was successful in dropping the unemployment rate from 24.1% in 1932 to 9.9% in 1940 (and even more if you count the 8.5 million that were on work-relief in 1940 that the BLS refused to count as employed--a measure they changed starting in 1946).</p>
<p>The bill also targets sectors necessary for economic recovery and higher education is one of those sectors. $2,500 is not a lot for an individual but, taken in aggregate, enables more students to go to or stay in college. This, too, is good for the society as a whole.</p>
<p>Mattsmom, yes, my joke is people should need a passport to come to NY from other parts of the country. I think NY instate tuition is a bargain, even with the increase, about 7K I think. Even OOS NY is about 13K. For a wide range of schools. Something for everyone.</p>
<p>and a tax credit is something that is subtracted from the tax you owe, vs being subtracted from your income (like the tuition and fees deduction)</p>
<p>Am I interpreting this correctly?</p>
<p>^^^^ sue, </p>
<p>A tax credit is money that comes back to you irregardless of income earned or tax paid. It is common for someone who is low income to have a negative tax rate due to a tax credit.</p>
<p>There are refundable tax credits and non-refundable tax credits. The latest proposals I saw had the tuition one as refundable.</p>
<p>If my tax due is 5000 will this tax credit reduce my tax due to 2500 (assuming I qualify for the credit)</p>
<p>Yes Yes Yes</p>
<p>thanks for the clarification!</p>
<p>RE: the 2500 tax credit for college tuition: So is this for 4 years of college? At what level of income does the phase out begin? Does phase out begin at an income level of 160,000 for married parents, and 80k for the single parent?</p>
<p>This is from the NYTimes today:
HIGHER EDUCATION TAX CREDIT This credit covers up to $2,500 of the cost of college tuition and other related expenses in 2009 and 2010. You’ll need to spend at least $4,000 in a single year to get the full credit. The credit begins to phase out for individual taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes over $80,000 or $160,000 for married couples filing jointly.</p>
<p>Forty percent of the credit is refundable, which benefits low-income students paying their way through school (who may owe no federal income taxes).</p>
<p>If the "other related expenses" include room & board, this could be quite helpful for families in WA who qualify for Pell Grants, and therefore pay no tuition at UW. It is the R&B that hurts (except Seattle residents who can commute).</p>
<p>***, families with incomes of $160,000 (about $115k after taxes) and kids in college dont have unmet financial need? These are the same folks who dont get financial aid, have had their meager savings eroded by the stack market debacle, can no longer borrow against the "equity" in their homes because there is no equity in their homes, and cant get even unsubsidized student loans in an amount sufficient to cover their kids educational expenses.</p>
<p>Yes, there is a higher education tax credit. It will replace the HOPE and other credit that was available. </p>
<p>AMT patch stays in and there is another tax gift upon filing taxes, I believe $400 vs last year's $600. Pell grant increased by a bit too. </p>
<p>Don't think this will make up for the reduced endowments that the colleges are having and the increased tuition and costs that are probably coming.</p>
<p>if a family making 160k has "meager savings" then I don't think they have been saving their money very well. That's a lot of money. </p>
<p>Say that to the families who make 20k a year and can't afford to go to college even if they wanted to. That's where the financial aid should go, IMHO.</p>
<p>Dear fendergirl: Spare me the phoney, self-serving moralizing unless youre willing to apply it accross the board and to your own situation whatever that maybe.</p>
<p>Applying your standards evenly, a family which only earns $15,000 a year obviously hasnt been spending their lives very productively have they? Theyre irresponsible "losers" and we shouldnt be bailing them out for their bad decisions, either. Maybe they partied and did drugs when they were young instead of pursuing a good job or education. Maybe they had opportunities but passed on them for lifestyle reasons, they wanted to be poets, artists, or to live on a commune. Or maybe they are members of the permanent underclass who work minimum wage just long enough to qualify for unemployment benefits and then go on back to work when it expires and then start all over again, because they dont want to work. Or maybe they are tax cheats or drug dealers who have alot of money but dont declare any of it. Why should others be paying for these folks and not others?</p>
<p>Or maybe, just maybe, this family, which is now making $160k, just landed that job this year and has no savings. Or maybe, in the past, they had huge medical or other expenses and losses. Maybe they have 5 kids in school. What if they assiduously saved for their kids and lost it in the recent stock market and real estate collapse, which was the point of the OP?</p>
<p>These are the types of issues that are always involved, and never satisfactorily addressed, when the government confers this type of benefit on some but not all citizens. Neither it nor you is competent at it.</p>
<p>Dont be self righteous and ignorant. It's a hell of a combination.</p>