(01-28-2015 03:59 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 03:52 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  You clearly have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The IRS makes the rules, not individual schools. Other than through lobbying, individual schools have zero say in the tax code. And no, the std deduction + dependent deduction is nowhere near $25k.

If the schools are paying for every ounce of nutrition that each athlete consumes via a separate food budget, then they no longer need to include food expenses in the scholarships.

That means less non-qualifying income for each athlete.

Very clearly a scenario that the schools' control, not the IRS.

...if the school pays for the food, then it is part of the scholarship. Payments of food and/or money for food are taxable as per IRS regs cited earlier in the thread. Your theory that the aren't is terribly misinformed.

(01-28-2015 03:57 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  1) There are athletes with jobs as is. In fact, you *have* to have one at least one summer to graduate from Syracuse's business school. So no. You're 100% making things up.
2) Semantics. Additional scholarship money = stipend for all practical purposes that I can see, and the additional money is commonly referred to as a stipend, even if there is technically some minute difference.
3) That's a dumb question with an obvious answer: the IRS isn't going after them because unlike many future college athletes, they don't owe the IRS money.

1) I'll go less than 5% of total DI athletes will receive a W2 for the 2014 tax year.

2) No, it's you realizing that you were incorrect. No paycheck, no salary = no stipend. You don't get to retool the definition of words to fit your posts.

It's a scholarship.

3) Neither do athletes earning meager "income' from their scholarship for non-qualifying expenses.

(01-28-2015 03:59 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  OK. Call is just rent (why you're excluding food is beyond me). Either way, good luck finding housing that cheap in any college town, especially if you plan on living on campus (like athletes). You are laughably low.

Ok, I pick Fargo, ND. A college town by all definitions.

Rent can be had for less than that. Certainly $350/mo.

It's called roommates.

(01-28-2015 04:01 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  ...if the school pays for the food, then it is part of the scholarship. Payments of food and/or money for food are taxable as per IRS regs cited earlier in the thread. Your theory that the aren't is terribly misinformed.

Explain to me how it will be considered part of the scholarship when the scholarship very clearly does not include any money for food and the athletes can get all the food they want via access to a special athlete's food court, which costs them nothing?

I'm not claiming that taxes won't be paid period. But if they are, they'll be paid by the school. Not the athlete - because their scholarships will no longer include money for food expenses.

(01-28-2015 04:03 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 03:59 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  OK. Call is just rent (why you're excluding food is beyond me). Either way, good luck finding housing that cheap in any college town, especially if you plan on living on campus (like athletes). You are laughably low.

Ok, I pick Fargo, ND. A college town by all definitions.

Rent can be had for less than that. Certainly $350/mo.

It's called roommates.

https://living.sas.cornell.edu/live/cont...drates.cfm

Athletes generally get put in doubles. As per Cornell, those are north of $8k for the school year, plus extra for the summer. Assuming summer housing adds $1k, the cost is north of $9k, and ball parked what I said.

(01-28-2015 04:05 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 04:01 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  ...if the school pays for the food, then it is part of the scholarship. Payments of food and/or money for food are taxable as per IRS regs cited earlier in the thread. Your theory that the aren't is terribly misinformed.

Explain to me how it will be considered part of the scholarship when the scholarship very clearly does not include any money for food and the athletes can get all the food they want via access to a special athlete's food court, which costs them nothing?

I'm not claiming that taxes won't be paid period. But if they are, they'll be paid by the school. Not the athlete - because their scholarships will no longer include money for food expenses.

If the school buys athletes food, then how is it not part of the scholarship? How is that different than the school buying athletes education? The athletes would be paid for their status as an athlete and the payment that covers food is taxable. I don't get why you can't wrap your mind around that concept.

(01-28-2015 04:03 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 03:59 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  OK. Call is just rent (why you're excluding food is beyond me). Either way, good luck finding housing that cheap in any college town, especially if you plan on living on campus (like athletes). You are laughably low.

Ok, I pick Fargo, ND. A college town by all definitions.

Rent can be had for less than that. Certainly $350/mo.

It's called roommates.

If you are in the middle of the country you may be able to get away with $350 per month in rent but not on the coasts (at least in the mid-Atlantic/Northeast or California areas). $350 in rent even with roommates will get you a place that may not be up to code or in an area where you might fear for your life.

(01-28-2015 04:18 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  https://living.sas.cornell.edu/live/cont...drates.cfm

Athletes generally get put in doubles. As per Cornell, those are north of $8k for the school year, plus extra for the summer. Assuming summer housing adds $1k, the cost is north of $9k, and ball parked what I said.

Yikes! Living in Cornell housing is expensive.

I suggest the athletes take the $4.2k in their scholarship for housing off campus.

(01-28-2015 04:22 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  If the school buys athletes food, then how is it not part of the scholarship? How is that different than the school buying athletes education? The athletes would be paid for their status as an athlete and the payment that covers food is taxable. I don't get why you can't wrap your mind around that concept.

Only financial aid provided to the athlete in the form of a grant is actually a scholarship, thus counting as income for non-qualifying expenses.

On the other hand, if the school buys food (per nutritionist recommendations) and provides it in whatever form is most convenient for the athletes, then said food has been given (gifted) by the school to the athlete. The NCAA ruled this year that such gifts can happen in unlimited amount.

No grant was provided in said scenario. So it isn't a scholarship. It's not that hard, really.

(01-27-2015 03:39 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(01-27-2015 03:29 PM)FIUFan Wrote:  

(01-27-2015 03:15 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(01-27-2015 02:52 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(01-27-2015 02:48 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

There won't be any withholdings, rebates or credits in the equation. These are people who have zero income, period. They won't receive W2's.

As far as I'm concerned, that means they don't and should not be required to even file a 1040.

And even if that's technically not correct --- come on .. are you really saying the IRS is going to spend millions of dollars going after peanuts from college students? Good grief.

1. ...unless they get a job.

.

The IRS won't go after a university because a student didn't pay taxes. The IRS, however, does occasionally go after small time people to keep everyone honestish. I'm not saying that they necessarily would, but if the IRS did go after a high profile college athlete, it would be a very cheap case and the IRS would get a ton of publicity, which would likely translate into millions of dollars, if not tens of millions of dollars in extra revenue. I'm not saying that it necessarily will happen, but you do the math. Pretending like it can't or definitively won't because the service can pick up a couple more bucks on a lower profile case is amazingly short-sighted.

The IRS won't waste much time on this. Student Athletes for the most part are not allowed to work. The 2 to 5K they would get will either not at all or barely cost them any tax $$. The standard deduction is around 2500.

(01-29-2015 09:24 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  The IRS won't waste much time on this. Student Athletes for the most part are not allowed to work. The 2 to 5K they would get will either not at all or barely cost them any tax $$. The standard deduction is around 2500.

The standard deduction for a single taxpayer is $6,200 and the personal exemption is an additional $3,950. Meaning you have no need to file unless you paid income tax into the system and would like a refund if your earnings don't reach $10,150.

(01-29-2015 09:51 AM)FIUFan Wrote:  The standard deduction for a single taxpayer is $6,200 and the personal exemption is an additional $3,950. Meaning you have no need to file unless you paid income tax into the system and would like a refund if your earnings don't reach $10,150.

You mean get a refund on the withholdings from the tax year.

Help me understand something then, if you claim the figure is only around $10k.

The first year I worked at a company, I started in mid May right after graduating from undergrad with a B.S. So let's just say I only worked for half the tax year. If I recall correctly, I earned approximately $25k in income. They of course withheld some amount of that income, but I'm pretty sure I selected whatever would cause the minimum amount of income to be withheld (given my single with no dependents status).

I feel confident that I got all of that withholdings back when I filed the 1040EZ the following Jan. How was that possible, then?

(01-29-2015 10:57 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  I feel confident that I got all of that withholdings back when I filed the 1040EZ the following Jan. How was that possible, then?

Once you subtract out your stand. ded. and pers. exemption your taxable income gets down to about $15k and you would owe about $1800 on it. [If you were married your stand. ded would jump to $12,200, reducing your taxable income to ~$9,000 with a tax of ~$900 (if your spouse had no reportable income).] Once your taxable income gets to zero, you get everything back.

There are a slew of ways to reduce your taxable income, so w/o knowing your specific circumstances that's about as far as I can go.

(01-29-2015 01:42 PM)FIUFan Wrote:  Once you subtract out your stand. ded. and pers. exemption your taxable income gets down to about $15k and you would owe about $1800 on it. [If you were married your stand. ded would jump to $12,200, reducing your taxable income to ~$9,000 with a tax of ~$900 (if your spouse had no reportable income).] Once your taxable income gets to zero, you get everything back.

There are a slew of ways to reduce your taxable income, so w/o knowing your specific circumstances that's about as far as I can go.

Well as I said, I filed a 1040EZ form meaning I only took the standard deduction.

I guess I simply remembered wrong. I know I got a refund that year, but it must've been $1800 less than my withholdings.

Thanks

(01-29-2015 09:51 AM)FIUFan Wrote:  

(01-29-2015 09:24 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  The IRS won't waste much time on this. Student Athletes for the most part are not allowed to work. The 2 to 5K they would get will either not at all or barely cost them any tax $$. The standard deduction is around 2500.

The standard deduction for a single taxpayer is $6,200 and the personal exemption is an additional $3,950. Meaning you have no need to file unless you paid income tax into the system and would like a refund if your earnings don't reach $10,150.

my point still stands, in fact the tax complication is even reduced. Many of these kids are claimed by their parents still, so they would only be able to claim the $6200, but that is over the 5k stipend. Some on here act like the students will be hit hard, and that simply is not the case. Though the IRS could possibly go after them for the 7.15 SS tax. If they decided that the 5k was earned income and not simply reimbursing for expenses.