The House's Tax Bill Levies a Tax On Graduate Student Tuition Waivers (nytimes.com)

Camel Pilot writes: The new GOP tax plan -- which just passed the House -- will tax tuition waivers as income. Graduate students working as research assistants on meager stipends would have to declare tuition waivers as income on the order of $80,000 income. This will force many graduate students of modest means to quit their career paths and walk away from their research. These are the next generation of scientists, engineers, inventors, educators, medical miracle workers and market makers. As Prof Claus Wilke points out: "This would be a disaster for U.S. STEM Ph.D. education." Slashdot reader Camel Pilot references a report via The New York Times, where Erin Rousseau explains how the House of Representatives' recently passed tax bill affects graduate research in the United States. Rousseau is a graduate student at M.I.T. who studies the neurological basis of mental health disorders. "My peers and I work between 40 and 80 hours a week as classroom teachers and laboratory researchers, and in return, our universities provide us with a tuition waiver for school. For M.I.T. students, this waiver keeps us from having to pay a tuition bill of about $50,000 every year -- a staggering amount, but one that is similar to the fees at many other colleges and universities," he writes. "No money from the tuition waivers actually ends up in our pockets, so under Section 117(d)(5), it isn't counted as taxable income." Rousseau continues by saying his tuition waivers will be taxed under the House's tax bill. "This means that M.I.T. graduate students would be responsible for paying taxes on an $80,000 annual salary, when we actually earn $33,000 a year. That's an increase of our tax burden by at least $10,000 annually."

Comments

Taxation is theft

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is removing a tax deduction classified as LEVYING a tax when it is on something leftists want, but cutting taxes on corporations is classified as taking money from the poor?

All taxation is theft. It is the violent, forceful confiscation of the property of another. The only ethical tax rate is 0.

Re:Taxation is theft

[grasshoppa]

How you were modded to 5 I'll never know.

If I'm waiving your tuition, guess what? That's income, in that you are receiving products for deferred compensation (ie: never ).

Were you to argue that college interns should have their tuition forgiven, that'd be something. But to argue that it's not income at all is disingenuous and, more importantly, inaccurate.

Re:No, it doesn't.

[ScentCone]

Yeah, I'm a real asshole for pointing out that some students pay for tuition with income on which they got taxed, while these students DON'T pay for that same tuition and thus are getting the equivalent in income without paying that tax. Let me guess: you're a liberal. Anyone who points out basic reality to you is an asshole, right?

Re:Lets be honest

[DNS-and-BIND]

Since when does the Left give a shit about the deplorables? You actively hate the population of the USA. The long-term success of the USA is the worst thing that could ever happen. It would just embolden the jingoists and racists to continue bombing the piss out of the rest of the world, and a revitalized economy would provide the cash to do it with. Patriotism is racism. Supporting America is jingoism. Where do these bizarre sentiments even come from?