First there were noises made (and will continue to be made) about taxing the endowments of higher educational institutions at a higher rate. One can argue whether schools can or should use more of those endowments to pay for students to attend school, but nobody seems to have suggested — until now — that they should be used as additional revenue for the federal government (to pay for upper class tax cuts).
Now they’ve tweaked the tax bill (you know, the one that’s supposed to make everyone’s taxes so much better) to cause serious grief to graduate student programs. Many universities help support graduates working as research assistants and the like by giving them tuition waivers along with a meager salary. The House tax plan, just passed, makes those waivers taxable income, making the taxes owed by such students untenably higher.
But, hey, who needs all those pointy-headed intellectuals who don’t come from families that can afford graduate degrees without such waivers? It’s hardly like we need proles with PhDs, amirite?
Originally shared by +Robert Hansen:
If you haven’t been following this, now’s a good time to begin. The President and the GOP have essentially declared war on graduate students.
Most graduate students receive a small paycheck and a large tuition waiver. Those waivers have previously not been counted as taxable income, so students earning $30,000/year with a $40,000/year waiver got to pay taxes at the $30K rate on $30K of income. The GOP tax bill will change this, requiring graduate students to pay taxes at the $70K rate on $70K of income, despite only earning $30K.
Let me be clear: if this tax bill passes you’ll see graduate programs empty. It’s that big of a threat. At $70K the federal tax rate is 25%; that means $18K a year in taxes, when you only get paid $30K. It’s literally not enough money to live on, but since your W-2s report you’re making considerably more than poverty wages you don’t qualify for any public benefits.
Graduate students know coming into the program they’ll spend a few years thin; they shouldn’t be required to starve.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/opinion/house-tax-bill-graduate-students.html
Opinion | The House Just Voted to Bankrupt Graduate Students
Our tax burden could increase by tens of thousands of dollars, based on money we don’t even make.
TF?! Impeach them all!!
All part of the long time GOP goal of turning the clock back to the 1890s, when the middle class meant doctors and lawyers.
Also, does Katherine have any Canadian colleges on her list?
+Stan Pedzick As it happens, no.
+Dave Hill might be worth a last minute addition.
+Ivan Wiley No need to impeach. Just vote the assholes out in 2018. Every single Representative who voted for this is on the chopping block in 51 weeks or so.
And if we re-elect 90% of the Congressional assholes, like we did in 2012, 2014, and 2016, even when Congress approval ratings were pushing single digits, we collectively get what we deserve.
so students earning $30,000/year
Hah, hah, hah.
Mollie gets $12k. So she'd be paying more in taxes than she gets paid.
I checked with Mollie. She’s out of course work, so this doesn’t apply to her. But the current stipend is up to $21k. Tuition benefit is about $40k. So $51k “income”. I’m not sure what the tax rate is at that level, but you’d basically end up with an actual income of about $9000/year. Subtract health insurance and fees from that and you don’t have enough to eat, let alone rent an apartment.