Many grad students — especially in Ph.D. programs — receive tuition waivers in exchange for teaching classes or doing research. Under current law, that money isn't taxed as income. But the new bill calls for those tuition waivers to be counted as income and subjected to income taxes.
2 comments:
How the government can possibly claim that tuition waivers are taxable income is beyond me. To extend that logic further would mean that food vouchers would be equally taxable because they are also technically income under that definition. Just to imagine having to pay tax on money that you never receive and is instantly funnelled into education of all things. If this country has any hopes to improve it has to invest in education. Although maybe the government doesn’t want to progress. So far they’ve been pretty happy living in the 1940s, minus the anti-nazi sentiment. I am very proud of CMU for speaking out against this, along with BU. I cannot believe that this will ever pass, and anyone with even half a brain would try to stop it in it’s tracks. The precedent set by this tax idea would ruin any form of leveling of the playing field for the lesser privileged.
Oh, taxes and government, how and where to even begin. Looking at how this would affect so many in a largely negative way makes me think that this effect wasn't even considered when the new tax reform was initially conceived. I think that it is possible to see any money that is given in most forms can be classified as income. I think this is created in an effort to stop a lot of unethical ways people get money without paying taxes. This, however, doesn't apply to aid programs like food stamps because it is a government aid program, which would be taxing its own benefits. I think that the original intent is not bad or malicious, just that it has largely unintended side effects. This could easily be fixed with some better writing and review of this before accepting it at its face value. We can affect this by doing our part as people in this country whom it would affect and let our voices be heard.
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