Who said it is a right? PhD student put in long hours for 6-8 years, and get paid a stipend that is quite low compared to what most of them would make in the job market. They are taxed on that stipend, and in some cases their health care benefits (if they have them) – and unlike other employees in other types of jobs. To add a tax on for between $10K and $40K of additional income that they don’t actually see any cash for (tuition waivers) is ridiculous. If you get a company car and get taxed on it, you have the right to say no and not take the car. Or the golf club membership. But you can’t say no to the tuition portion of being a grad student.
Plus, what PhD student has time to take on an additional job to pay for their graduate degree? Many programs would strongly discourage that even if the students had time. And if they worked a more regular job, that PhD could easily take more than 10 years to complete – which just isn’t tenable for hardly anyone.
The article by the student at Yale (several pages back) was pretty reasonable. She said she is “charged” $51k in tuition which is then credited to her account as a graduate tuition waiver but she never goes to a class. She is not paid in cash for nearly the number of hours she works. If this passes, the schools have to figure out a way to fairly compensate the grad students for the WORK they perform (because income is taxed, even if the employer is a non-profit or university), and then figure out how to fairly charge them for tuition. If they aren’t going to classes, they shouldn’t be charged as if they do. If they are working 50-60 hours a week, they shouldn’t be paid a $20k stipend, they should be paid more. She explained how the schools are getting tuition money from contracts from outside entities and it flows through the university departments to the university’s benefit.
^ except virtually no university has the money for that. Where would that money come from? Doubling undergraduate tuition?
Grad students don’t have enough money to pay these taxes - 8k in taxes for a 20k stipend, or 9k in taxes for a 24k stipend, is not just unfair, it’s impossible and unsustainable.
The result will be that they
do not start
start in another country (Canada and China are counting on this, and salivating. China has been offering full rides.)
move to another country
do not pay for now, ask for an extension, and wait till November 2018
drop out and resume when it’s possible (perhaps never, perhaps abroad)
Grad students teach over 50% of the hours at our state flagship. It will likely have to come out of undergrad tuition somehow if they have to be paid more to cover the tax bill impact. This is true in pretty much every state. It really isn’t just a grad student problem if this component passes. It will raise the cost of an undergraduate education and could further increase class sizes, reduce office hours, and make more testing standardized for faster grading.
If it was a “job,” then shouldn’t taxes apply? It’s adding value to yourself once the degree is awarded (which should cost money). I’m paying for it to invest in myself / get the end product but if they throw in grants that’s more money for me to keep and put in the stock market end of the day
By this argument, why stop with graduate students or with tuition waivers? Why not scholarships in general, grad or undergrad? Taxes apply to other kinds of “non-job” incomes?
@sylvan8798 – I wondered the same thing many pages back on this thread. (Or the other tax one–cannot keep them straight.) Seems illogical to not also tax all undergrad scholarships, while they are at it.
Are you suggesting that the tax treatment of your tuition waiver be the same as for companies?
If so, I don’t think you will like what this means. The last time I checked on this (about 10 years ago), general employee training is tax-free to $5250 per year, and anything beyond that is taxable to the employee. A higher training amount is tax free only if it is to keep you trained for your current job.
So in the PhD case, since the education’s purpose is not to keep you in your current TA/RA job, it would be taxable beyond $5250 per year, assuming the same rules still apply.
So complete consistency in the House version for those receiving paid tuition, whether in a corporation or in a PhD program. Not exactly what you were expecting is it @romanigypsyeyes ?