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How is that relevant. Grad students work because they are doing research relevant to their degree and are teaching so they can learn to be professors. It’s all

How is that relevant. Grad students work because they are doing research relevant to their degree and are teaching so they can learn to be professors. It’s all part of the program. The get paid for their work and they pay tax on it. The government pays their tuition in the form of a grant or the university endowments pays the tuition because the university needs to cover operational costs. Tuition has nothing to do with a grad students income. The only reason they are invoiced for it is that represents their portion of the university operating budget.

leereeves 9y ago
Tuition is part of the compensation graduate assistants receive for working for the university. There's no reason universities should receive special treatment here. They should pay their employees enough to live on, after taxes, like all other employers, and the fringe benefit of free tuition should be taxed like other fringe benefits.
- digitaltrees 9y ago
  In what way is it compensation? So we should calculate sales tax based on sticker price rather than actual paid price? Grad students receive a salary for their work and a discount from the sticker price of the tuition. They are separate transactions.
  - leereeves 9y ago
    The transactions are tied: grad students have other (often much better) options for employment; they choose to work for a grad school because they value the free tuition.
    - eli_gottlieb 9y ago
      No, they choose to work in PhD programs because they value doing research.
candiodari 9y ago
Yes, because as we all know in any company if you learn from your colleague you pay him a rate commensurate with how much effort he put in it. Of course not. This is a tax cheat by universities: it allows them to use money that has been given to them on the condition they use it for students for other purposes by "paying" it to students then demanding it back immediately as tuition (in practice not even giving it to them: it never gets to the students bank account).

leereeves 9y ago

Tuition is part of the compensation graduate assistants receive for working for the university. There's no reason universities should receive special treatment here. They should pay their employees enough to live on, after taxes, like all other employers, and the fringe benefit of free tuition should be taxed like other fringe benefits.

digitaltrees 9y ago
In what way is it compensation? So we should calculate sales tax based on sticker price rather than actual paid price? Grad students receive a salary for their work and a discount from the sticker price of the tuition. They are separate transactions.
- leereeves 9y ago
  The transactions are tied: grad students have other (often much better) options for employment; they choose to work for a grad school because they value the free tuition.
  - eli_gottlieb 9y ago
    No, they choose to work in PhD programs because they value doing research.

candiodari 9y ago

Yes, because as we all know in any company if you learn from your colleague you pay him a rate commensurate with how much effort he put in it. Of course not. This is a tax cheat by universities: it allows them to use money that has been given to them on the condition they use it for students for other purposes by "paying" it to students then demanding it back immediately as tuition (in practice not even giving it to them: it never gets to the students bank account).