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Why Is My Fellowship Tax Bill So High?!

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Hi! I’m Dr. Emily Roberts, the founder of Personal Finance for PhDs. I’m a financial educator specializing in graduate students, postdocs, and PhDs in their first Real Jobs. My website is P F f o r P h D s dot com. The contents of this video are for education purposes only and should not be considered tax, legal, or financial advice for any individual. This video answers the question: why is my fellowship tax bill so high?

Introduction

I’m assuming that you found this video because your tax software or tax preparer has delivered some really, really unwelcome news, which is that you owe a large amount of tax this year, perhaps $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 or even more. And you are panicked because that is a huge amount of money for a graduate student or postdoc to come up with!

This is unfortunately a very common occurrence for graduate students and postdocs whose stipends or salaries are paid from fellowships or training grants and not reported on a Form W-2.

Specifically, this video is for postbacs, graduate students, and postdocs who are US citizens, permanent residents, and residents for tax purposes who are attending a university or training program in the US. Furthermore, all or part of your income is not reported on a Form W-2. I’m going to refer to you as a “fellow” in this video, although that might not be exactly the term that your university uses.

In this video, I will explain why graduate student and postdoc fellows often face these large tax bills. I’m going to focus on federal tax alone. In the companion video, What to Do When Facing a Huge Fellowship Tax Bill, linked in the description below, I step through what you should do if you are facing a high fellowship tax bill.

In all likelihood, the reason that you have a high tax bill due is that your fellowship is taxed as ordinary income but you were not having income tax withheld from your paychecks. I’m going to break that statement down now so that you can fully understand it.

Links Mentioned

Point #1: Your fellowship is taxed as ordinary income.

Point #1: Your fellowship is taxed as ordinary income. What this means is that the federal government taxes fellowship income that you receive as your stipend or salary at the same rate that it taxes employee income.

I’m hand-waving a little bit here and making some assumptions, but this is roughly correct. I’ll point you to a resource in a moment to help you get this exactly right if you’re interested.

The general point is that your stipend or salary is subject to income tax in the same way that employee income is. That is to say, part of it tax-free thanks to your deductions, part of it is taxed at 10%, part of it is taxed at 12%, and if you were particularly well-paid, perhaps some is taxed at one or more even higher rates. These are the ordinary income tax rates.

The taxability of your fellowship income may come as a surprise to you, because there are endemic rumors running around universities that fellowship income is not subject to income tax. Sometimes even tax professionals say the same thing, although they are mistaken. Fellowships used to be exempt from tax, but that changed with tax reform in the 1980s.

If you want more discussion about the taxability of fellowships, I encourage you to listen to my previous podcast episode on the subject, titled Do I Owe Income Tax on My Fellowship?, which you can find linked in the description below.

One additional quick note is that you should not pay self-employment tax on your fellowship income. Assuming that you’re not otherwise self-employed, if you see that your tax return includes a Schedule C for your fellowship income and/or there is an amount listed on Schedule 2 Line 4, that means that something has gone dramatically wrong with the tax preparation process. It is vital that you correct that error before filing your return.

I told you a moment ago that I was hand-waving over some details about how fellowship income is taxed. Your taxable income from a fellowship might not be exactly the same as your stipend or salary. It could actually be slightly more or less, depending on your individual circumstances. If you are a graduate student and want to go really in depth with this material or are trying to correct the self-employment mistake I just mentioned, I encourage you to join my paid tax workshop, How to Complete Your Grad Student Tax Return (and Understand It, Too!), which is linked in the description below.

Point #2: You weren’t having income tax withheld from your stipend or salary.

Point #2: Despite the fact that your fellowship income is taxable, you weren’t having income tax withheld from your stipend or salary. The vast majority of universities and institutes do not withhold income tax on fellowship income.

Universities are required to withhold income tax on behalf of their employees. Employee income is reported on a Form W-2. But you are not an employee with respect to your fellowship income, so the university has no obligation to withhold income tax on that income, and the majority do not.

Here are some common scenarios that graduate students and postdocs face:

1) You were an employee, either at your university or elsewhere, in the first part of the calendar year, but then you switched onto fellowship income with the new academic year. In that case, you had income tax withholding on your income in the earlier part of the year, but it stopped when your funding source changed. Also vice versa, you could have switched from fellowship income to employee income mid-year.

2) You received fellowship income for the entire calendar year, and you had no income tax withholding during the year.

3) You had two concurrent sources of stipend or salary income, one from an employee position and one from a fellowship. You had income tax withheld on the employee portion, but not the fellowship portion. Even though you had withholding through the entire calendar year, it wasn’t enough to cover both sources of income.

I understand that you may be frustrated that your university or institute did not withhold income tax on your behalf. I wish that they all would offer this benefit. The very least they could do would be to give you a heads up that they’re not withholding income tax but that you still may have a tax liability, but I’m guessing because you found your way to this video that they did not. And I’m really sorry that you’re in this situation.

Point #3: Your tax return compares your calculated tax liability for the year with the income tax withholding that the IRS received during the year.

Point #3: Your tax return compares your calculated tax liability for the year with the income tax withholding that the IRS received during the year.

For most households in the US, their income tax withholding exceeds their income tax liability, so after they file their tax returns they receive a tax refund. That’s the excess money that they paid in through the year being refunded to them.

The opposite can also happen. When your tax liability exceeds your income tax withholding, you are expected to pay the balance when you file your tax return.

Conclusion

Now you can see why you’re facing this large income tax bill. You had taxable income, but no tax was withheld or not enough was withheld, and the IRS now expects you to pony up the difference.

After you finish this video, I encourage you to watch the companion video linked below, What to Do When Facing a Huge Fellowship Tax Bill, especially if you are unable to pay the entire bill right away.

If you would like to learn more about income tax on fellowships, I please register for my free email course on the subject, linked below. You can also find it at PFforPhDs.com/fellowshiptax. It is going to explain the previous points in even more detail and point you to lots of additional resources.

Again, I’m very sorry that you’re facing a high fellowship tax bill. I wish things hadn’t played out the way they have, but please know that you will get through this, and ultimately this will be just a small hiccup in your financial journey.

What to Do When Facing a Huge Fellowship Tax Bill

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Hi! I’m Dr. Emily Roberts, the founder of Personal Finance for PhDs. I’m a financial educator specializing in graduate students, postdocs, and PhDs in their first Real Jobs. My website is P F f o r P h D s dot com. The contents of this video are for education purposes only and should not be considered tax, legal, or financial advice for any individual. This video will show you the steps to take when you are facing a high tax bill due to your fellowship income.

Introduction

I’m assuming that you found this video because your tax software or tax preparer has delivered some really, really unwelcome news, which is that you owe a large amount of tax this year, perhaps $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 or even more. And you are panicked because that is a huge amount of money for a graduate student or postdoc to come up with!

This is unfortunately a very common occurrence for graduate students and postdocs whose stipends or salaries are paid from fellowships or training grants and not reported on a Form W-2.

Specifically, this video is for postbacs, graduate students, and postdocs who are US citizens, permanent residents, and residents for tax purposes who are attending a university or training program in the US. Furthermore, all or part of your income is not reported on a Form W-2. I’m going to refer to you as a “fellow” in this video, although that might not be exactly the term that your university uses.

In this video, I will share with you the steps you should take when facing a high tax bill, both to address the current bill and also avoid getting into the same situation again next year. In the companion video, Why Is My Fellowship Tax Bill So High?!, linked in the description below, I explain why PhD fellows often face high tax bills.

Links Mentioned

Step 1

Step 1: Don’t panic! IRS agents are not going to break down your door and haul you off to jail over this tax bill. You can manage this. Take a deep breath. I’ve interviewed several graduate students and PhDs on the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast who were in this exact situation, and they all found that the IRS was pretty reasonable to work with.

Part b to this step, which I want you to keep in mind throughout this whole process of resolving your bill, is to stay in contact with the IRS. Don’t stick your head in the sand about this matter. File your return on time, respond to the letters they send you, even if you can’t pay right away. Falling out of communication is tempting, but it’s kind of the worst thing you could do.

Step 2

Step 2: Double-check your tax return. I want you to be sure that it’s correct and that you really do owe that much income tax.

I told you in the companion video, Why Is My Fellowship Tax Bill So High?!, that fellowships are taxed as ordinary income. That means that you should pay the same amount of tax on your taxable fellowship income that you would on that amount of employee income.

Use an income tax calculator like the one pictured from smartasset.com. It’s not going to be super precise in calculating your tax liability, but it should get you in the right ballpark. If you have one or more dependent children, choose a calculator that takes that into account. Enter your pertinent details.

Take a look at the calculated federal income tax.

Compare that amount to the total tax line on your Form 1040. Are they fairly close, maybe within 10%? If that’s the case, your tax return passes this quick check, and it’s likely that you do owe that large tax bill.

However, if your tax liability from your tax return is much higher, like double or more, what the calculator said, that’s a major red flag. You need to go through your return with a fine-toothed comb to figure out whether something went awry in the preparation process. I would be suspicious that your fellowship income has been confused with self-employment income.

If you are a grad student and would like to learn more from me about how to prepare an accurate tax return, join my paid tax workshop, How to Complete Your Grad Student Tax Return (and Understand It, Too!), which is linked in the description below.

Step 3

Step 3: File your tax return and pay what you can. You can wait until Tax Day if you like, but do file by the deadline. Pay as much as you comfortably can, but do not put your bill on a credit card or anything similar.

If you have existing savings, how much should you put toward this bill vs. keep for yourself? My opinion is that you should treat IRS debt, which is what this bill is on the verge of becoming, similar to how you should treat credit card debt. That is to say, keep a small emergency fund of $1,000 to 2 months of expenses, and put any cash savings above that level toward paying this bill. That means forgoing investing and repaying lower-priority debts until it is paid. If you are familiar with my 8-step Financial Framework, I would place this bill in Step 2.

If you can completely pay the bill without dipping into your small emergency fund, that’s great! You’ll still need Step 4, though, so keep watching the video.

If you can’t pay the bill in full, keep working the steps.

Step 4

Step 4: Update your budget.

Your next step is not to get in touch with the IRS regarding paying your outstanding balance, although you should do that soon. First, you need to figure out your budget for this year.

In Step 4a, I want you to figure out how to stave off a large, surprise tax bill at this time next year.

If you are still on fellowship and still not having income tax withheld from your paychecks, I actually recommend that you figure out your tax bill for the current tax year before you commit to a payment plan for the tax year that has already ended.

That starts with estimating how much tax liability you will accrue on your fellowship income in this tax year.

You can use a calculator that I made, which you will receive after registering for my short, free email course at PFforPhDs.com/fellowshiptax/. Alternatively, you can use a calculator like the one I referenced in Step 2.

Figure out how much money you will need to set aside from each of your current fellowship paychecks to pay your tax bill for the current year. Build that number into your budget.

I recommend opening a separate savings account nicknamed Tax and setting up an autodraft from your checking account into the savings account for the correct amount of money immediately after you receive each paycheck. Then, when it comes time to pay your tax bill for the current year, you’ll have the money ready. This is what I call a system of self-withholding.

In Step 4b, you should determine if you are required, in the current tax year, to make estimated tax payments on a quarterly basis.

You do this by filling out the Estimated Tax Worksheet on p. 8 of Form 1040-ES. The worksheet is a high-level draft of your tax return. At the end, it will tell you whether you are required to make estimated tax payments and if so in what amount. The payment deadlines for each quarter are in mid-April, mid-June, mid-September, and mid-January of each year. If you are required to make these payments, your system of self-withholding will keep you on track to be ready to make them.

If you would like my teaching and support in how to fill out the Estimated Tax Worksheet and handle common scenarios that PhD trainees encounter, join my paid tax workshop, Quarterly Estimated Tax for Fellowship Recipients, which is linked in the description below.

In Step 4c, you will reassess your budget. You need that savings rate to go toward your current year’s tax bill, but you also need to know how much you can feasibly put toward your previous year’s tax bill on a monthly basis going forward. It’s vital to know the maximum that you can realistically pay to the IRS on a monthly basis for that bill prior to setting up a payment plan with them.

Specifically, there are two types of plans, short-term and long-term. If you can adjust your budget so that you will pay off your entire past year’s bill within 120 days, you can opt for the short-term plan. If you can’t, you’ll opt for the long-term plan.

Sidebar here: I said earlier that you shouldn’t put your tax bill on a credit card. That is generally speaking good advice, because the typical interest rate on a credit card is far higher than the interest rate the IRS will offer you.

The one maybe-possibly exception would be to put the bill on a promotional 0% interest rate credit card. You should only consider this if you’re 1,000% confident that you will pay the entire bill before the promotional period ends and the interest rate jumps up. Compare the fees for using such a card, if you qualify for one, with the fees and interest the IRS will charge you over the period you expect to hold the debt.

I don’t love the option of using a credit card to pay this bill, but I also don’t love you being in debt to the IRS. Either way, it’s a high-priority debt that you should strive to pay off quickly.

Step 5

Step 5: Make a plan with the IRS. Now that you know how much you can afford to pay toward your previous tax bill and whether you’re able to opt for a short-term plan, you’re ready to set up a payment plan with the IRS. Make sure that the required amount of payment is set at less than what your budget tells you that you can afford.

The best website I’ve found to help with this process is the Taxpayer Advocate Service, which is linked in the description below. It explains all of the options the IRS will give you so you can decide which is the best fit. For example, if you owe less than $10,000, the guaranteed installment plan gives you three years to pay the debt. Once you have assessed all your options, get in touch with the IRS to set up your payments. If this is your first time being late on paying your tax bill, you can ask to have any penalties waived.

Step 6

Step 6: Follow through. Pay the IRS on the schedule you agreed to, and in fact try to pay them even sooner! Again, following my Financial Framework, I recommend that you get creative with your budget to funnel as much money as you can toward your IRS debt and any other high-priority debts you may have. Consider this a financial sprint with a definite end point, after which you can take your foot off the gas a smidge.

Conclusion

I hope hearing those steps helped calm you down and show you that there is a path through this situation. You are not the first nor will you be the last graduate student or postdoc to get on a payment plan with the IRS, if it comes to that.

If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to watch the companion video linked below, Why Is My Fellowship Tax Bill So High?!, to understand how this situation came about.

If you would like to learn more about income tax on fellowships, I please register for my free email course on the subject, linked below. You can also find it at PFforPhDs.com/fellowshiptax. This will really help you if you are continuing on fellowship in the current year.

Again, I’m very sorry that you’re facing a high fellowship tax bill. It may take you some time to completely resolve the issue, but you will get through it and nothing terrible is going to happen in the meantime. The IRS is fairly reasonable to work with. Good luck to you.

Is Fellowship Income Eligible to Be Contributed to an IRA?

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Update 2/22/2022: Great news! The point of this article has been fulfilled because the IRS re-revised Publication 970 for tax year 2021 to reflect the current tax code, which permits taxable graduate student and postdoc income, whether reported on a Form W-2 or not, to be contributed to an IRA.

Publication 970 p. 5 NOW states: “Individual retirement arrangements (IRAs). You can set up and make contributions to an IRA if you receive taxable compensation. A scholarship or fellowship grant is generally taxable compensation only if it is shown in box 1 of your Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. However, for tax years beginning after 2019, certain non-tuition fellowship and stipend payments not reported to you on Form W-2 are treated as taxable compensation for IRA purposes. These include amounts paid to you to aid you in the pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study and included in your gross income under the rules discussed in this chapter. Taxable amounts not reported to you on Form W-2 are generally included in gross income as discussed later under Reporting Scholarships and Fellowship Grants.”

The rest of this article is unchanged from its original publication date on 2/6/2022.

Believe it or not, I look forward to the release of each new version of the IRS’s Publication 970, which covers how fellowship and scholarship income is taxed. I read it thoroughly and make sure that what I teach is in line with it. However, when I opened up the new 2021 version a few days ago, I was disappointed to read on p. 5: “Individual retirement arrangements (IRAs). You can set up and make contributions to an IRA if you receive “taxable compensation” (formerly “earned income”). Under this rule, a taxable scholarship or fellowship grant is compensation only if it is shown in box 1 of your Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement.” Disappointed doesn’t really touch the depths of my feelings… I was momentarily devastated! I’ve been telling you for over two years now that fellowship income is eligible to be contributed to an IRA regardless of how it is reported or not reported at tax time. Was I wrong? Let’s explore the relevant texts. I have great respect for the IRS publications and find them very useful, but they are not the final word on tax law… the tax code is.

Further reading/listening:

Pre-2020 Status

You must have “taxable compensation” to contribute to an IRA in a given tax year. You can contribute up to the cap for that year ($6,000 in 2019-2022) or your amount of taxable compensation, whichever is lower.

Through tax year 2019, with respect to PhD trainee income, only income reported on a Form W-2 was considered “taxable compensation.”

The text from the 2019 version of Publication 970, Tax Benefits
for Education, reads on p. 5: “Individual retirement arrangements (IRAs). You can set up and make contributions to an IRA if you receive taxable compensation. Under this rule, a taxable scholarship or fellowship grant is compensation only if it is shown in box 1 of your Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. For more information about IRAs, see Pub. 590-A and Pub. 590-B.”

Similarly, the text from the 2019 version of Publication 590A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), reads on p. 6: “Scholarship and fellowship payments are compensation for IRA purposes only if shown in box 1 of Form W-2.”

This text is very clear and reflects the widely held understanding of eligibility for IRA contributions. It was very disappointing for many members of the PhD community; winning a fellowship often comes with a pay raise and therefore an enhanced ability to save for retirement, yet those recipients were barred from making IRA contributions. Keep in mind, these fellowships were taxable as ordinary income, just not considered taxable compensation for IRA contribution purposes. I didn’t like this rule, but I taught it as part of my personal finance material.

The Graduate Student Savings Act

Somehow, the plight of graduate students and postdocs who received fellowship income was heard! The Graduate Student Savings Act proposed to change the definition of taxable compensation. It was put before Congress as a bill in 2016, 2017, and 2019.

An excerpt of the fact sheet for the Graduate Student Savings Act of 2019 reads: “While fellowship or stipend income is taxed by federal and state governments, it doesn’t qualify as “compensation,” meaning that none of a student’s fellowship funds can be saved in an IRA… Many postdoctoral fellows… also receive taxable fellowship income, yet these fellows are also barred from using their fellowship income to contribute to tax-preferred retirement accounts. The Graduate Students Savings Act of 2019 would ensure that any graduate student or postdoctoral fellow who is
paid for their work or their studies can save a portion of their stipend in an IRA.”

While not using super specific or technical language, this excerpt makes clear the intent of the bill: to allow “any graduate student or postdoctoral fellow who is paid for their work or their studies” to contribute to an IRA, i.e., change the definition of taxable compensation.

Graduate Student Savings Act was not successful in being passed as an independent bill in any of those years. Then, in 2019, it was included in the SECURE Act.

The SECURE Act

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act) is described by Investopedia as a “far-reaching bill includes significant provisions aimed at increasing access to tax-advantaged accounts and preventing older Americans from outliving their assets.” It was signed into law on December 20, 2019.

The Graduate Student Savings Act was included in the SECURE Act. Here is the relevant text from the bill:

“SEC. 106. CERTAIN TAXABLE NON-TUITION FELLOWSHIP AND STIPEND PAYMENTS TREATED AS COMPENSATION FOR IRA PURPOSES.

“(a) In General.—Paragraph (1) of section 219(f) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following: “The term ‘compensation’ shall include any amount which is included in the individual’s gross income and paid to the individual to aid the individual in the pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study.”.

“(b) Effective Date.—The amendment made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2019.”

This expands the definition of taxable compensation for the purposes of contributing to an IRA beyond what is reported on a Form W-2. To me, this definition clearly includes taxable fellowship and training grant income paid as stipends and salaries not reported on a Form W-2.

The Tax Code (2021)

From the current Internal Revenue Code section 219 on Retirement Savings, section (f)(1) reads:

“(1) Compensation For purposes of this section, the term “compensation” includes earned income (as defined in section 401(c)(2)). The term “compensation” does not include any amount received as a pension or annuity and does not include any amount received as deferred compensation. For purposes of this paragraph, section 401(c)(2) shall be applied as if the term trade or business for purposes of section 1402 included service described in subsection (c)(6). The term “compensation” includes any differential wage payment (as defined in section 3401(h)(2)). The term “compensation” shall include any amount which is included in the individual’s gross income and paid to the individual to aid the individual in the pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study.”

Again, I read this as any type of grad student and postdoc salary or stipend with no clauses about being reported on a Form W-2. The language is very similar to how IRS Publication 970 describes fellowship income on p. 5: “A fellowship grant is generally an amount paid for the benefit of an individual to aid in the pursuit of study or research.”

The Internal Revenue Code does seem, to me, to reflect the intent of the Graduate Student Savings Act of expanding the definition of taxable compensation with respect to graduate student and postdoc income beyond what is reported on a Form W-2.

The 2021 Publications

Publication 970

As I stated at the start of this article, Publication 970 disappointingly has not changed its tune on the definition of taxable compensation. It says the same thing in 2021 that it did in 2019 as if the Graduate Student Savings Act had never passed.

Publication 590-A

Publication 590-A, to its credit, now has some mixed language regarding taxable compensation and fellowship stipends and salaries. I’ll compare the 2018 and 2021 versions of this publication.

The 2018 version of Publication 590-A contains exactly one reference to fellowship income on p. 6 in the section titled What Is Compensation?: “Scholarship and fellowship payments are compensation for IRA purposes only if shown in box 1 of Form W-2.”

The 2021 version of Publication 590-A contains this language on p. 6 in the section titled What Is Compensation?: “Scholarship and fellowship payments are compensation for IRA purposes only if shown in box 1 of Form W-2.” So no change there.

However, further down in the same section it says: “Graduate or postdoctoral study. Compensation includes any income paid to you to aid you in the pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study.”

Are they trying to draw a distinction between “any income paid to you to aid you in the pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study” and “scholarship and fellowship payments”? What could “any” income mean if not, at least in part, fellowship payments?

To further muddy these waters, Publication 590-A includes Table 1-1, Compensation for Purposes of an IRA. The 2018 version of this table doesn’t mention either fellowship income or graduate or postdoctoral study. The 2021 version lists “taxable non-tuition fellowship and stipend payments” as included in the definition of taxable compensation.

This language in the table is consistent with both employee and non-employee graduate student and postdoc income, again, with no mention of a Form W-2 reporting requirement.

Furthermore, the 2021 version of Publication 590-A says under the Reminders section on p. 2: “Certain taxable non-tuition fellowship and stipend payments. For tax years beginning after 2019, certain taxable non-tuition fellowship and stipend payments are treated as compensation for the purpose of IRA contributions. Compensation will include any amount included in your gross income and paid to aid in your pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study.”

I am not sure what “certain” means in this paragraph. “Non-tuition fellowship and stipend payments” reads to me as stipend or salary as long as your tuition is being paid by another source of funding. “Any amount included in your gross income and paid to aid in your pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study” reads to me as both your employee income (reported on a Form W-2) such as from a graduate assistantship position or postdoctoral employee position and taxable non-employee (not reported on a Form W-2), often sourced from a fellowship or training grant.

My Conclusion

My conclusion is that the very clear language in Publication 970 and Publication 590-A excluding taxable fellowship and scholarship income from the definition of taxable compensation unless it is reported on a Form W-2 is not consistent with the spirit of the Graduate Student Savings Act or the current tax code. The changes made by the SECURE Act to the tax code included in the definition of taxable compensation “any amount which is included in the individual’s gross income and paid to the individual to aid the individual in the pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study.” To me, this means that if you receive a taxable stipend or salary as a graduate student or postdoc, even if it is not reported on a Form W-2, it is taxable compensation for the purpose of contributing to an IRA.

What Do You Think?

I am really struggling with this and I honestly want to know: Do you see a flaw in my reasoning? Is there some difference between “fellowship” and “any income paid… in the pursuit of graduate and postdoctoral study”? Leave a comment here or email me (emily@PFforPhDs.com). I am open to the idea that there is something I don’t see or understand. Or let me know if you agree with me.

What Can We Do?

If my argument is valid and the text in IRS Publication 970 and Publication 590A (in part) is incorrect, what can be done? Hit me with your ideas for getting this text updated.

My initial idea is to write to the offices of the Senators (Elizabeth Warren, Mike Lee, Ron Wyden, and Tim Scott) who sponsored the Graduate Student Savings Act to see if they can clarify why the IRS’s language in these publications doesn’t reflect the change the Act brought about. Do you have any other ideas?

The big win for our community was getting the Graduate Student Savings Act passed. The follow-through on that win is making sure that people (and tax software/preparers) know about the change so that graduate students and postdocs can functionally contribute to IRAs.

Fellowship and Training Grant Tax Forms

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There is no single correct IRS tax form on which to report PhD trainee fellowship and training grant stipends and salaries. Universities and funding agencies take different approaches, which often confuses grad students, postdocs, and postbacs. This article shares the crowd-sourced information on how universities and funding agencies are reporting fellowship and training grant income.

Please contribute to this project by filling out this survey to have your tax form included in this article—and share the survey as well.

I have included the number of entries that I’ve received for each type of tax form.

Further reading:

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)

The T32 has been reported on a:

  • Form 1098-T in Box 5 (5 entries)
  • Courtesy letter (3 entries)

It has also been not reported in any way (3 entries).

Ruth L. Kirschstein Individual Predoctoral NRSA for MD/PhD and other Dual Degree Fellowships (F30)

The F30 has been reported on a:

  • Form 1098-T in Box 5 + Form W-2 in Box 14 (1 entry)

Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)

The F31 has been reported on a:

  • Form 1098-T in Box 5 (2 entries)
  • Form W-2 in Box 1 (1 entry)

It has also been not reported in any way (1 entry).

Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)

The F32 has been not reported in any way (1 entry).

Individual Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00)

The F99/K00 has been not reported in any way (1 entry).

Intramural Research Program: Postdoctoral Research Training Award (IRTA)

The postdoc IRTA has been reported on a:

  • Form 1099-G in Box 6 (1 entry)

NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program

The Oxford-Cambridge Scholarship has been reported on a:

  • Form 1099-G in Box 6 (1 entry)

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program TL1

The CTSA TL1 has been reported on a:

  • Form 1099-MISC in Box 3 (2 entries)

Clinical Connections-Connecticut (CNC-CT)

The CNC-CT has been not reported in any way (1 entry).

Molecular Biophysics Training Grant

The Molecular Biophysics Training Grant has bee reported on a:

  • Form 1098-T in Box 5 (1 entry)

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP)

The GRFP has been reported on a:

  • Form 1098-T in Box 5 (13 entries)
  • Form W-2 Box 1 (1 entry)
  • Courtesy letter (1 entry)

It has also been not reported in any way (5 entries).

Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB)

The PRFB has been not reported in any way (1 entry).

Department of Energy (DoE)

National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship

The NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship from the Krell Institute has been reported on a:

  • Courtesy letter (1 entry)

Department of Defense (DoD)

National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG)

The NDSEG has been reported on a:

  • Form 1099-NEC in Box 1 (1 entry)
  • Courtesy letter (1 entry)

Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART)

The SMART Scholarship has been reported on a:

  • Form 1099-MISC Box 3 (1 entry)

The National Academies

Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship

The Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship has been reported on a:

  • Courtesy letter (1 entry)

Henry Luce Foundation

Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship

The CBL Fellowship has been not reported in any way (1 entry).

Simons Foundation

The Simons Postdoctoral Fellowship has been reported on a courtesy letter (1 entry).

Internal Fellowships

Cornell University

A fellowship for first-year rotating students has been reported on a Form 1098-T in Box 5.

Harvard University

The Prize Fellowship has been not reported in any way (1 entry).

Indiana University

The University fellowship has been reported on a Form 1098-T in Box 5 (1 entry).

Mayo Clinic

The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education & Research Fellowship has been reported on a Form 1098-T in Box 5 + Form 1099-MISC in Box 3 (1 entry).

Rochester Institute of Technology

A graduate research assistantship position has been reported on a Form 1099-MISC in Box 3.

University of California, Berkeley

The Chancellor’s Fellowship has been reported on a Form 1098-T in Box 5.

University of California, San Diego

The Summer Training Academy for Research Success (STARS) Fellowship has been reported on a Form 1098-T in Box 5 and a courtesy letter (1 entry).

University of Connecticut

The Jorgensen Fellowship has been not reported in any way (1 entry).

University of Michigan

The Rackham Merit Fellowship has been reported on a Form 1098-T in Box 5 (1 entry).

University of Pennsylvania

The Dean’s Fellowship in the Graduate School of Education has been reported on a Form W-2 in Box 1 (1 entry).

University of Southern California

The Merit Fellowship has been reported on a Form 1098-T in Box 5 (1 entry).

University of Virginia

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Dean’s Doctoral Fellowship has been not reported in any way (1 entry).

Washington University in St. Louis

The WM Keck Postdoctoral Fellowship has been reported on a courtesy letter (1 entry).

Please contribute to this project by filling out this survey to have your tax form included in this article—and share the survey as well.

Want more tax content specific to graduate students, postdocs, and postbacs?

Visit the Personal Finance for PhDs Tax Center.

Workshop: How to Complete Your Grad Student Tax Return (and Understand It, Too!)

Workshop: Quarterly Estimated Tax for Fellowship Recipients

What to Do at the Start of the Academic Year to Make Next Tax Season Easier

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In this episode, Emily teaches what various types of PhD trainees can do at the start of the academic year to make next tax season go more smoothly. She covers tracking qualified education expenses, quarterly estimated tax, the Kiddie Tax, and state residency. Please consider sharing this episode on social media or with an email list-serv so your peers have access to this information as well!

Links Mentioned in the Episode

easier tax season

Introduction

Welcome to the Personal Finance for PhDs Podcast: A Higher Education in Personal Finance. I’m your host, Dr. Emily Roberts.

This is Season 10, Episode 2, and I don’t have a guest today, but rather I will tell you what various types of PhD trainees can do at the start of the academic year to make next tax season go more smoothly. We will discuss tracking qualified education expenses, quarterly estimated tax, the Kiddie Tax, and state residency. Please consider sharing this episode on social media or with an email list-serv so your peers have access to this information as well!

We are at or near the start of a new academic year, which means it’s time to take a moment to think about taxes. A few minutes of consideration at this time of year can save you a big headache and wallet-ache during tax season, so it’s worth it.

This episode has four sections, and I’m going to clearly identify at the beginning of each section who the information is for, because it will switch around. Overall, this episode is for US citizens, permanent residents, and residents for tax purposes living in the US. The various intended audiences for the sections are full-time graduate students; postbacs, grad students, and postdocs receiving non-W-2 stipends or salaries; full-time graduate students age 23 and younger; and grad students who either moved states in 2021 or whose income is coming from a new state. Our overarching topic is what you can do now to make next tax season easier.

Please note that I am not a Certified Public Accountant or Certified Financial Planner. This content is educational in nature only and should not be considered tax, financial, or legal advice for any individual. You are entirely responsible for your own financial decisions.

Tracking Education Expenses

Section A is for full-time graduate students.

In early 2022, once you get into preparing your annual tax return, you are going to need to use your so-called “qualified education expenses.” You can use these expenses to reduce your tax liability. Depending on which higher education tax benefit you employ, your qualified education expenses will either be used as a deduction or a credit. I’m not getting into all the details now because you will figure that out during tax season, but if you want to read more, go to PFforPhDs.com/prepare-grad-student-tax-return/ for my article updated for 2020.

The action step for you at this point in the year is to keep track of any education expenses that you suspect might be qualified education expenses. Now, the education expenses that are paid through your student account are already tracked for you, and you should be able to access your 2021 statement during tax season to look at all of the transactions for items like tuition and fees. What I’m suggesting that you manually track is any education expense that you transact outside of that student account, such as textbooks, course-related expenses, and computing purchases.
What I mean by tracking is to save two types of documents: 1) The receipt of the purchase showing the price paid. 2) The document stating that the purchase was required by your course instructor, your department, your school, or your university. The document could be a course syllabus, an email, or a screenshot from a webpage. You can choose how you want to save these records, but I suggest a digital copy maintained in cloud storage.

Now, not every education expense that you track may turn out to be a “qualified education expense” as that will depend on which higher education tax benefit or benefits you choose to use for your tax return. I suggest you leave the task of figuring out what is qualified and what is not to Future You. Present You only has the responsibility to track the expenses, and Future You will thank you for that.

Awarded Income and Estimated Tax

Section B is for postbacs, grad students, and postdocs receiving non-W-2 stipends or salaries.

Right up front, I need to define what I mean by a non-W-2 stipend or salary. I use a framework wherein there are two basic classifications for a stipend or salary that a PhD trainee might receive: employee income and awarded income. These are my own terms, so you won’t find ‘awarded income’ in IRS documentation or used by universities.

Employee income comes from the work than an employee performs for their employer. At the graduate student level, employee positions are often but not exclusively called assistantships, e.g., research assistantship, teaching assistantship, or graduate assistantship. If you have employee income and are a US citizen, permanent resident, or resident for tax purposes, this income will be reported on a Form W-2 at tax time.
The other type of income, awarded income, is more difficult to define. It is given as an award rather than for work performed. At the postbac, grad student, and postdoc levels, awarded income is often but not exclusively called fellowship income. If you are a US citizen, permanent resident, or resident for tax purposes, this income could be reported on a Form 1098-T, a Form 1099-MISC, a Form 1099-NEC, or a courtesy letter. However, there is actually no IRS reporting requirement for this type of income, so many PhD trainees receive absolutely no documentation whatsoever.

If you want to understand this framework more fully, I suggest listening to Season 8 Episode 1 of this podcast, which is titled “What Your University Isn’t Telling You About Your Income Tax.”

Now, the important things to know about awarded income, which I also call non-W-2 stipends or salaries, at this time of year are that 1) this is taxable income and 2) your university is likely not withholding income tax from your paychecks.

There are endemic rumors running around universities that this non-W-2 type of income is not taxable. While it is very tempting—and self-serving—please do not believe these rumors. Listen to Season 2 Bonus Episode 1 of this podcast, titled “Do I Owe Income Tax on My Fellowship?”, in which I clearly delineate which portion of your awarded income is taxable and which is tax-free.

One of the reasons these rumors sound believable is that, with rare exceptions, universities and institutes do not withhold income tax on behalf of their non-employees.

If your stipend or salary recently switched to an awarded income source or this is the first time you’re learning about this income tax issue, you have a few action items:

1) Figure out if income tax is being withheld from your paychecks. If it is, you’re done until tax season.

If income tax is not being withheld:

2) Fill out the Estimated Tax Worksheet on p. 8 of Form 1040-ES. Essentially, you will do a high-level draft of your 2021 tax return, and the worksheet will tell you whether you are required to pay estimated tax and if so in what amount. The principle behind estimated tax is that the IRS expects to receive income tax payments from each taxpayer throughout the year as they receive their paychecks. If your employer does not withhold income tax on your behalf, this becomes your responsibility. However, there are some situations in which estimated tax is not required, and the Estimated Tax Worksheet will tell you if you fall into one of the exception categories. If you are required to pay estimated tax, please be aware that the next due date is September 15, 2021. The due dates typically fall in mid-April, mid-June, mid-September, and mid-January of each year. If you are required to pay estimated tax and fail to, you may be fined by the IRS.

3) Whether you are ultimately required to pay estimated tax or not, the Estimated Tax Worksheet will tell you how much you can expect to pay in tax above your withholding for the year. I strongly encourage you to start saving up for your eventual tax payment or payments. Divide your additional tax liability in Line 14b by the number of remaining paychecks you’ll receive in 2021 and start saving that amount of money from each paycheck. Personally, I have a dedicated savings account named Taxes into which I transfer money from each paycheck. Then, when my quarterly bills are due, I have the money ready to go, and the payment doesn’t strain my cash flow at all.

Please keep in mind that if you have a state tax liability in 2021, you may be required to pay estimated tax to your state as well.

If you want some help with filling out your Estimated Tax Worksheet, please check out my workshop, Quarterly Estimated Tax for Fellowship Recipients at PFforPhDs.com/QEtax/. The workshop explains how to fill out every line of the Estimated Tax Worksheet plus how to handle common scenarios that PhD trainees encounter, such as switching onto or off of fellowship mid-year and being married to someone who has income tax withholding. The workshop comprises numerous pre-recorded videos, a spreadsheet, and an invitation to the next live Q&A call, which will take place on September 12, 2021. To join the workshop, go to PFforPhDs.com/QEtax/. That’s q for quarterly, e for estimated, t a x.

By the way, I give a discount for bulk purchases of this workshop, and it’s not too late to ask your department, graduate school, graduate student association, postdoc office, etc. to buy it on behalf of a group of graduate students, postdocs, or postbacs. Simply email me at emily at PFforPhDs dot com to get the ball rolling on that purchase.

Commercial

Emily here for a brief interlude!

We have a special event coming up on Friday, August 27, 2021! It’s the fourth installment of my Wealthy PhD Workshop series. The subject is debt repayment.

This workshop is for you if you are in debt of any kind and want to learn the best strategies for getting out of debt. These strategies are tailored to the PhD experience, particularly that of graduate students. We will cover student loans, of course, which are such a complex topic, as well as mortgages, credit card debt, auto debt, medical debt, etc. I’ll give you a spreadsheet that will help you work through in which order to tackle your debts, taking into account the type of debt, the interest rate, and the payoff balance. We’ll also discuss how to sustain your motivation through a long debt repayment process.

This is going to be a value-packed session, so please join us on August 27th. You can register at PFforPhDs.com/WPhDDebt/. That’s PF for PhDs dot com slash W for Wealthy P h D D e b t.

Now back to our interview.

The Kiddie Tax

Section C is for full-time graduate students age 23 and younger.

I want to give you a heads up that a higher tax rate might apply to you if you meet the following criteria:

  1. You are age 23 or younger on 12/31/2021.
  2. You are a full-time student.
  3. You receive a non-W-2 stipend or salary for at least part of 2021.

If you checked all of those boxes, you might be subject to the Kiddie Tax, which means that part of your income may be taxed at your parents’ marginal tax rate instead of your own. The Kiddie Tax can apply even if you aren’t being claimed as a dependent.

I can’t say for sure that you will or will not be subject to the Kiddie Tax as there are more calculations that have to be performed, but I suggest that you look into this before the end of the calendar year and possibly take some mitigation measures if your parents’ marginal tax rate is higher than yours. You may need to engage a professional tax preparer to help you and your parents with tax planning and preparation for 2021. You may need to save more from each paycheck for your eventual tax bill than I laid out in Section B.

I have an article about how the Kiddie Tax affects funded PhD students at PFforPhDs.com/kiddietax/. That P F f o r P h D s dot com slash k i d d i e t a x.

State Residency

Section D is for graduate students who moved states in 2021 or are receiving income from a new state.

I find that people get rather mixed up about state residency and taxes, especially when they are in graduate school. For a traditional college student who is a dependent of their parents, it is common to maintain your residency in the state your parents live in even while you attend college in another state. However, I rarely come across a compelling reason that a graduate student should do the same.

The pandemic has also thrown a wrench into the question of state residency due to how common remote work is now. So even if you lived in only one state in 2021, if your income comes from a different state, that’s something to contend with.

What I think you should do at this time of year to make tax season easier is to figure out and/or decide in which state or states you will be a resident, part-year resident, or non-resident in 2021. This will require you to read about how your new state and your old state define residency and how they tax residents, non-residents, and part-year residents.

My totally generic, blanket recommendation if you have moved states to start grad school is to consider yourself a resident of your new state, even if technically your former state allows you to still be considered a resident due to your student status. You’re a full-fledged adult with a more-or-less proper income now. Why would you want to keep close ties to your parents’ address? In almost all cases, there is no financial advantage to doing so plus you’ll likely have to file two state income tax returns, one as a non-resident in the state you live and work in and one as a resident in the state you don’t live or work in. For how long do you want to keep that up?

If you agree that you don’t want to keep filing two returns indefinitely if there’s nothing in it for you, take a few steps this fall to firmly establish your ties to your new state. Reference how your new state defines a resident for the definitive word on how to do so, but for some starting ideas you should get a new driver’s license, register to vote, change your address with your car insurance, and update your mailing address with all your financial institutions.

Now, if you really do have a compelling reason for maintaining your residency in your old state while you’re a student, by all means try to do so. You still have to read all the material I mentioned before, but this time with the goal to maintain your residency in your old state and avoid being considered a resident in your new one. By the way, in all my conversations with grad students about taxes, I’ve only ever heard one reason that I considered compelling: A resident of Alaska who was attending graduate school in another state wanted to maintain their Alaska residency so they could continue to receive universal basic income. Please remember that even if you do have a great reason to want to maintain residency in your old state, you have to cross all your ts and dot all your is to make sure you meet the requirements.

Conclusion

That it for this episode! I hope you’ll check in with me during next tax season for more tax education and support for PhD trainees. I offer a workshop titled How to Complete Your Grad Student Tax Return (and Understand It, Too!) during each tax season, which can be purchased by individuals or groups at a discounted rate. I’m making plans for how I can help PhD trainees with their tax returns in brand-new ways in the upcoming tax season. Join my mailing list at PFforPhDs.com/subscribe/ to stay in the loop! You can expect to receive 2-3 emails per week from me on various personal finance topics.

Before you go, would you please share this episode with your peers, especially new graduate students? Join me in helping to make next tax season go smoothly for all PhD trainees!

Can I Qualify for a Mortgage with a Short-Term Fellowship or on an F-1 Visa?

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In this episode, Emily shares a few clips from the first-time homebuyer Q&A that she hosted with Sam Hogan on May 6, 2021. Sam is a mortgage originator with Prime Lending (Note: Sam now works at Movement Mortgage) specializing in graduate students and PhDs, an advertiser with Personal Finance for PhDs, and Emily’s brother. The first pair of questions is on whether having three years left on your fellowship offer is required to get a mortgage. The second pair of questions is on qualifying for a mortgage if you’re on an F-1 visa. These questions are among the most common that Sam receives.

Previous Episodes with Sam Hogan

Introduction

Welcome to the Personal Finance for PhDs Podcast: A Higher Education in Personal Finance. I’m your host, Dr. Emily Roberts.

This is Season 8, Bonus Episode 1, and today I’m sharing a few clips from the first-time homebuyer Q&A that I hosted with Sam Hogan on May 6, 2021. Sam is a mortgage originator with Prime Lending (Note: Sam now works at Movement Mortgage) specializing in graduate students and PhDs, an advertiser with Personal Finance for PhDs, and my brother.

Sam has been on the podcast before in Season 2 Episode 5, Season 5 Episode 17, and Season 8 Episode 4. As Sam has gained experience working with PhD clients over the last few years, he’s been able to get mortgages approved in scenarios that didn’t seem possible a couple of years ago. We’re using this bonus episode to update you all on this evolving situation.

What you will hear next is me reading questions that were submitted over chat during the Q&A call and Sam’s answers. We selected these questions because they are among the most common that Sam receives. The first pair of questions is on whether having three years left on your fellowship offer is required to get a mortgage. The second pair of questions is on qualifying for a mortgage if you’re on an F-1 visa. There were a few dozen people on the call so you will hear some background noise as well.

If you would like to attend a Q&A call of this type, please sign up for the Personal Finance for PhDs mailing list at PFforPhDs.com/mortgage/. I’ll be in touch over email about the next scheduled call. As of now we anticipate holding another one in June 2021 and periodically after that.

If you would like to get in touch with Sam directly regarding your own mortgage, you can call or text him at (540) 478-5803 or email him at sam.hogan@movement.com.

Without further ado, here are the clips from the first-time homebuyer Q&A call with Sam Hogan.

Conclusion

Thank you, Sam, for giving your time and expertise to this call and thank you, participants, for your excellent questions! If you, listener, are interested in attending a Q&A call for first-time homebuyers in the near future, please go to PFforPhDs.com/mortgage/ and register for my mailing list. I’ll be in touch over email when we schedule the next call. If you would like to contact Sam directly regarding your own mortgage, you can call or text him at (540) 478-5803 or email him at sam.hogan@movement.com.