Free Resources Updated for Tax Year 2024 (Filing in Spring 2025)
How to Prepare Your Grad Student Tax Return (Tax Year 2024): A full, detailed, and step-by-step explanation of how grad students should prepare their tax returns, covering the various income types a grad student receives and the education benefits available.
The Complete Guide to Quarterly Estimated Tax for Fellowship Recipients: A long-form article explaining everything from what estimated tax is and who has to pay it to how to calculate your payment to how to make your payment.
Weird Tax Situations for Fully Funded Grad Students: An article for funded graduate students on the unexpected effects a ‘student’ status has on your taxes.
Weird Tax Situations for Fellowship Recipients: An article for fellowship recipients (grad students and non-students) on the unusual effects fellowship income has on your taxes.
Fellowship and Training Grant Tax Forms: A crowd-sourced list of fellowships and training grants and on which tax forms they were reported, updated weekly throughout tax season. (Submit your data point(s).)
Where to Report Your PhD Trainee Income on Your Tax Return: A detailed list of which lines on your tax return you should report W-2 (employee) and non-W-2 (awarded) PhD-related income.
Where to Find Completely Free Help on Your Tax Return: An annotated list of 100% free sources of information and assistance in preparing your tax return. The IRS offers multiple forms of help, and there are also other online and community resources available.
What Are Qualified Education Expenses?: A short article quoting IRS Publication 970 to illustrate the differences among the definitions of a qualified education expense for the three higher education tax benefits.
Free Resources Last Updated for Tax Years 2018-2023 (But Still Largely Accurate)
Five Ways the Tax Code Disadvantages Fellowship Income: A podcast episode (including transcript) that details five ways the federal income tax code disadvantages fellowship income, two ways fellowship income has a tax advantage, and one difference that has both pros and cons.
What to Do at the Start of the Academic Year to Make Next Tax Season Easier: A podcast episode (with transcript) on tracking qualified education expenses, quarterly estimated tax, the Kiddie Tax, and state residency.
How Fellowship Recipients Can Prevent Large, Unexpected Tax Bills: A podcast episode outlining the three steps fellowship recipients need to take, starting with their first paychecks, to avoid or at least expect a large tax bill in the next spring.
On What Tax Form Will My Fellowship Be Reported?: A short-form video listing all the possible places fellowship income could be reported—or not—for US citizens/residents.
Why Is My Fellowship Tax Bill So High?!: A video (with transcript) explaining why graduate students and postdocs often face large, unexpected tax bills.
What to Do When Facing a Huge Fellowship Tax Bill: A video (with transcript) explaining what to do when facing a large tax bill due to your fellowship—especially if you can’t pay it immediately.
Best Income Tax Calculator for Funded Graduate Students: A video demonstrating how to use my favorite simple calculator for estimating income tax liability for US citizens/residents.
How Can a Grad Student on Stipend Reduce Their Income Tax Due?: A video explaining the unique steps grad students can take to reduce their income tax liability.
How This Grad Student Fellow Resolved an Expensive Tax Bill in His Favor: A podcast interview (with transcript) with a grad student fellowship recipient relaying how the IRS mistook him for self-employed and billed him for $16,000 in back taxes, but he was able to resolve the issue by amending his returns to correctly report his income as fellowship using How to Complete Your PhD Trainee Tax Return (and Understand It, Too!).
What If I Owe Thousands of Dollars in Income Tax from My Fellowship?: A video detailing what to do if your tax return tells you that you owe $1,000+ due to a lack of withholding on your fellowship income.
Why Do I Owe Income Tax When My Labmate Is Getting a Refund?: A video teaching how your tax refund or tax bill is calculated and why you shouldn’t compare either to your peer’s, even if you have the same income.
What Is a Courtesy Letter?: A quick explanation of the informal letter that many fellows receive.
Is Fellowship Income Eligible to Be Contributed to an IRA?: The IRS hasn’t globally updated its language to reflect the eligibility of fellowship income to be contributed to an Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA). Is this income type considered “taxable compensation” or not?
What Your University Isn’t Telling You About Your Income Tax: A podcast episode (with transcript) that fills in the gaps in communication and counters the misinformation that PhD trainees often encounter at universities.
Fellowship Income Can Trigger the Kiddie Tax: Young graduate students (under age 24) who receive fellowship income may be subject to the Kiddie Tax. The Kiddie Tax rate is calculated from your parents’ marginal tax rate instead of your graduated tax rates. If your parents are in an equal or higher tax bracket than you, you may end up paying much more in federal income tax if you receive a fellowship rather than W-2 income. This article explains who the Kiddie Tax applies to and how to calculate it.
Do I Owe Income Tax on My Fellowship?: A short podcast episode explaining how fellows, both graduate students and non-students, know whether their fellowship income is taxable.
At-Your-Own-Pace Workshops
Purchase the appropriate asynchronous tax workshop for you—or recommend it to a potential sponsor at your institution!
Tax Return Preparation
For tax season 2024, I am offering four versions of How to Complete Your PhD Trainee Tax Return (and Understand It, Too!) for distinct populations:
- Graduate students who are US citizens, permanent residents, and residents for tax purposes
- Postdoctoral fellows who are US citizens, permanent residents, and residents for tax purposes
- Postbaccalaureate fellows who are US citizens, permanent residents, and residents for tax purposes
- Graduate students and postdocs who are non-residents
The goal of the workshop is to help you create an accurate tax return with the least stress possible. It will serve you well whether you ultimately prepare your tax return manually, with tax software, or through a tax preparer.
Click here to learn more about purchasing the workshop as an individual
Click here for a page you can send to a potential sponsor
Estimated Tax Calculation
Fellowship recipients, if you aren’t having income tax automatically withheld from your stipend/salary, you may be responsible for paying quarterly estimated tax. You should use the Estimated Tax Worksheet in Form 1040-ES to calculate whether you have to pay estimated tax and in what amount.
Quarterly Estimated Tax for Fellowship Recipients helps you fill out your Estimated Tax Worksheet, taking into consideration the unique scenarios encountered in academia.
Check out this page to learn more about and purchase Quarterly Estimated Tax for Fellowship Recipients as an individual.
Send this page to a potential sponsor of Quarterly Estimated Tax for Fellowship Recipients at your university/institute.
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