31 Republicans challenge tax on grad tuition waivers

Thirty-one Republican members of Congress signed a letter yesterday to House and Senate leaders, asking them to keep tuition waivers graduate students receive from universities tax free, despite a provision in the bill passed by the House that would count those tuition waivers as taxable income.

Teaching assistant orientation at Vanderbilt Univ. (Center for Teaching-Vanderbilt / Flickr CC)

“A tax on graduate tuition waivers would be unfair, would undermine our competitive position, and would inhibit the economic growth that tax reform promises,” the representatives wrote. In so doing, they may have doomed the provision in the final version of the bill that comes out of conference and is sent to President Donald Trump.

The lawmakers refer to Amazon’s intention to locate its second world headquarters in an area with a “highly educated labor pool” and a “strong university system.” If the tax reform act, whatever it ends up being, is supposed to spur job creation, making universities non-functional by taking away opportunities for grad students to attend—grad students teach many, many classes, especially at large research universities—isn’t the way to go.

“Tax policy should make our country more competitive, and creating barriers to technological progress is contrary to that goal,” they wrote. “We strongly urge you to ensure that this harmful provision is not in the final version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.”