Graduate students face tax hikes |
Graduate students at U.S. universities – including those from India and elsewhere around the world – are facing an enormous tax hike under the House bill which was approved Nov. 16 with 227 Republican votes. On the same day, the Senate Committee on Finance passed its version of the bill; the full Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill during the week of Nov. The House`s “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” – supported by the White House and almost every Republican member of the House – would increase the tax burden for graduate students by regarding as taxable income the non-cash tuition waivers graduate students receive for working on campus. The bill would also tax non-cash deductibles for health benefits and would impose a tax on student loan interest. Interest paid on student loans is currently tax deductible. The changes will increase the tax liability for graduate students on `income` they never actually see, noted the nationwide Graduate and Professional Student Association. A GPSA tax calculator estimated that – currently – a graduate student receiving a $22,000 cash stipend would have a tax burden of about $1,200. But if a tuition waiver is added, the student`s taxable income – on a non-cash waiver estimate of $26,000 and $2400 for health benefits – jumps to $50,000, making the tax owed about $4,600, a 400 percent increase.
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