Thoughts on fellowship/stipend

fordiscussion
Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Yes. I’ve read Pub 970 and I’m still not clear. He receives a stipend every month. He doesn’t have to do anything for it. He doesn’t teach. He does have to do the internship during those twelve weeks but according to the fellowship, it’s unpaid. He then receives $1,200 a week during those 12 weeks and they clearly state that it’s for housing at his temporary location. So I’m thinking he’s out of luck on the Roth contribution.

But still wondering, since he has to live in MD for twelve weeks, if it would count as “temporary living expenses”. Of course, the only place I can imagine deducting that would be on schedule A as misc itemized deductions and he probably won’t have enough to itemize.

We’re talking pretty good money here. Any place he could save on taxes would be great.

I haven’t even started thinking about whether he has to file a MD return.