Is the research / TA stipend for PhD students at U.S. universities taxed as income?
123730
I'm currently in the process of applying for various scholarships to fund my PhD.   Many scholarships mention explicitly the approximate amount per year of the scholarship. This is usually the amount excluding tuitions, so the amount mentioned is intended to be a stipend to cover living expenses.  I've never seen it mentioned anywhere, nor could I find a definite answer of this online: will this stipend be taxed? E.g., should I subtract a certain percentage off the scholarship amount that's mentioned, to calculate my real monthly income? Does this depend on the country the scholarship is given in, or are there international agreements on this?  I'm in the initial stages of setting up my PhD programme, therefore I'm in contact with professors in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Canada, so ideally, answers to my question apply to any of these countries. If it's relevant: I'm a dual citizen (European/American Citizen).
23229
I've been offered an academic position, and am now in the fortunate, but unfamiliar position of negotiating the offer.  I've seen a few blogs/comments/posts on this process.  However, I have no real idea how to evaluate the offer that's been made.  Coming from the position of a postdoc, the package seems impressive (given that, as a postdoc, my "package" consists of a very modest salary and health benefits).  However, I also realize the importance of maximizing (within reason) my initial offer, as this sets the baseline for, at least, the first few years of my faculty career and could provide support that would prove very important in the initial year or so while I'm trying to obtain grant funding.  In particular, I'm looking for two types of information.  First, what types of startup packages are standard for tenure-track assistant professors of Computer Science at a public RU/VH (i.e. Research) university?  This is just to give me some point of comparison.  Second, what types of changes are reasonable to negotiate?  Can I ask for more summer salary support while still conveying to them my desire to obtain grant funding as quickly as possible?  The offer already includes a reduced teaching load for the first few years --- is it also reasonable to ask for an extra semester off prior to a tenure review?  I understand these are fairly broad questions, but any input or suggestions would be very helpful.  I'm definitely interested in the job; I really liked the department and think it's a great opportunity.  I don't want to alienate anyone by pushing too hard, but at the same time, I want to make sure that I make every reasonable effort to maximize my chances for academic success, which includes maximizing my available resources by negotiating the best startup package I can.
96954
I'm currently working on my tax return for 2018.  I have taken my 1099's and calculated short term and long term capital gains and losses for my mutual funds where basis is reported and unreported.  On my 1099 is listed capital gain distributions.  Haven't I already taken care of this in part 1 and part 2 of schedule D, by listing the proceeds and costs.  Line 13 seems like double taxation.
120309
Background: I have the opportunity to pursue a Computer Science graduate degree at a well respected program (around top 20). I spoke with the professors at the university and I feel like I am a good fit with their research program. My ultimate pursuits are to complete a PhD in CS. I've done research as an undergraduate and it has only confirmed my notion that I want to pursue a research track career.  More background: I applied to jobs (in case I was rejected to all the programs I applied for) prior to hearing back from my respective graduate programs. I accepted a position for an industry job (this was to secure I wouldn't be both unemployed &amp; not in school).  Dilemma: Turns out my top graduate school is very interested in me, and I'm very interested in them. I would rather go to graduate school than work in industry forever. The industry job pays very well. I am split between A) working for a maximum of 1 year(It would only be 1 year, seriously I do not care about the money enough to work past a year) and B) going straight to graduate school.   My concerns are as follows, if I choose A):    Could I potentially defer my admissions? If I am not allowed to defer my admissions, would I have a good chance of re-applying and being accepted a year later? Would my potential advisers look down on me for deciding to work a year?   I already made my mind up it would be a 1 year gig if I decide A). I know some people say once you make money, you may not be able to readjust to the graduate salary pay. But I don't think that will apply to because I'm going to live very frugally with or without industry pay.
5632
So I have some ISO stock options (yeah) and three kids in college (boo) so I'm trying figure out the best tax strategy. I was hoping someone help me through the following scenario  Strike Price: $10, 2014 exercise price: $20, 2015 price: $25, 2016 price $30   Lets' assume that all of this happens 2+ years after the grant date and that my "normal" tax bill is right on the brink of the AMT threshold, that the AMT tax rate is 28% and the long term capital gains tax is 15%.   Now I want to run the following scenario  2014: exercise 1000 options 2015: exercise 1000 options, sell the previous years' option after "one year and one day" 2016: sell the 2015 options after "one year and a day"    Tax wise that would look like this  2014: AMT on $10000 of bargain element so $2800 AMT 2015: AMT on $15000 bargain element $4200, long term gain tax on $15000 = $2250 2016: long term gain tax on $20000 = $3000    What's the overall tax liability in each year? I can't figure out how the AMT carries forward when the options are finally sold.   Any good pointers to modeling software, spreadsheets or decent papers would also be appreciated.
75973
I am foreign graduate student in USA. I recently completed my undergrad (from USA) and have a bit of money saved up. I know that F1 students cannot work off campus and other business activities such stock trading etc are prohibited as well. I wanted to know if opening an account in an investment management firm like Charles Schwabb or Betterment is allowed. I would not be working but I will still be earning a small interest on my deposits. If that is not allowed, are there any good and legal ways for foreign students to earn a little interest on savings?
123469
I am a postdoc at a European University. However, I am planning to quit my postdoc in a month or so since the research environment and the city life is not to me liking.  Also, I work with a Professor who is very polite, but also very busy with meetings. My salary comes from the project he administers, so he is the boss of the organization and the project.  For the past four months I have been working on a problem day and night including weekends as I found the problem very interesting and challenging. The theoretical part of the work is complete. It is a "complete" solution. He had NO contribution at all in this. Not even a single email exchange. He is too busy with meetings all the time. He is in the department twice a week for two to three hours at a time. I am also managing his master student as he has no time.   He is definitely polite and nice though, but I have not received any input from him other than giving me printed research papers. But he always asked me to give him the PDFs of lengthy derivations which I did. But I am dealing with analytical/numerical Navier-Stokes equation and its variations, so you can imagine how much terse that is. He has the entire theory now with him from my work. He may have been a good researcher in the past but no contribution to this work. And he had no proper publication in the work that I am doing so I am not sure how much he can contribute in writing the paper.  Now remains the numerical part which I believe I can do in next 2/3 weeks. And I have the ability to write the paper by myself when I have the numerical solution.  I talked to him and asked if I can work for him based in another city. He said if it is a week visit, that is fine, but not otherwise. He said it clearly that "I will not pay you to work somewhere else."  I still have a cordial relationship with him. No worries on that part. So, I am going to leave the place and the position in a month or two for sure.  So, he gains co-authorship just because he has the authority to provide employment? What should I do? Please help. I could have continued to live in the city though it was little boring for me, provided I was able to get inputs from my collaborator, or if he had given me necessary freedom to collaborate with other researchers, which he hasn't.    Update 10th June, I have resigned now. This problem has evolved into a new stage. Please post your replies there:    and
59092
I'm finishing a PhD in Sweden this year and seeking a post-doc in the United States (atmospheric remote sensing).  It is clear that a job in academia is not a nine to five job; nor do I want it to be.  I often work late in the evening when I'm on a productive spur.  When an important dead-line is coming up, one needs to work harder, and there is no overtime paid.  I accept that.  However, no matter how much I'm interested in my research, I do enjoy and need a reasonable amount of spare time, too; relaxing on the weekends, occasionally a long weekend away, and sometimes a longer trip, such as three weeks in the wilderness.  Regarding the normal work ethos for early-career academics in the United States, I have a hard time judging what is normal and what is excessive.  Some examples:    warning post-docs that he expects all of the members of the group to work evenings and weekends. My apparent naïveté in believing that , despite Wikipedia  as a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year.  I was thinking of my friend, who spent a year between his PhD and his first post-doc travelling from France to Mongolia mostly on foot. Someone  I am not a good role model, but when I don't work on a Sunday, I count that as a vacation day.  having no employment-related benefits such as paid vacations, sick leave, or unemployment compensation. Question    We don't have such a work-ethos where I'm at.  I belief that working too hard risks stress and burn-out, and does not increase productivity in the long run, nor human well-being.  I want to do science.  Doing science makes me happy, but having time to relax while not doing science is important for me.  Does the selection of examples I gave above represent a normal situation in U.S. early-career academia?  Should I expect an attitude where asking for a 3-week holiday during the summer is considered as being not serious, or is the situation in practice usually not as bad as the examples above make it sound?  How hard to early-career academics in the United States work, really?
60641
I read somewhere that overfunding a 529 account could be subject to taxes and a 10% penalty. Does anyone know how this works? Obviously, it is very difficult to predict the tuition costs 10 or 15 years ahead. I understand you can apply the overfunds to a another child or relative, but what if this is not these? Do you pay taxes + 10% penalty on all leftover funds?
28534
So my mom claimed me for 2018 Taxes when she shouldn’t have. For 2019 taxes I filed my taxes on April 3rd this year. I am a college student currently part time but my parents do not provide for me financially so they shouldn’t be able to claim me which they didn’t. I support myself with two jobs making over 40k a year My parents didn’t claim me this year. Would I still be eligible for the check?
39707
I am an undergraduate student doing independent research. My research work is selected for presentation at a very reputed conference in the US. I am from India. I cannot afford to attend the conference at all. How should I fund my trip? The travel grant for students available from the conference is very low. It can hardly buy me a one way ticket. What are my options?
47503
Tried my best with the title. Ok, earlier while I was on break from work (I have low level math, and want to be more fond of mathematics)  I work retail, and 20% of taxes are taken out, and I am wanting to find out how much I made before 20% is taken out.  So I did some scribbling, and this is without googling so please be gentle. but lets say I make 2000 dollars per paycheck, so to see how much money I get after taxes I do 2000 * .8 which gives me 1600. I can also do 2000 * .2 which gives me 400 and then do 2000 - 400 (imo I don't like this way since I have a extra unnecessary step)  Anyways, I was pondering how to reverse that to have the answer be 2000, and what I did was 1600 * 1.20 (120%) which gave me 1920, and I thought that is odd so I did 1600 * 1.25 and answer was 2000 exact.  My question is why did I have to add extra 5% (25%) to get my answer? I am sure I did something wrong, and I fairly confident the formula I am using is a big no no.  edit; wow thank you all for your detailed answers. I am starting to like mathematics more and more.
92143
I live in Europe (Czech Republic) and as long as employment is my primary source of income I don't need to file any taxes on my own, as the company's accounting department will do that for me by default. Why is the American system different?
73597
I was paid a few hundred dollars to review a few textbooks. I submitted an invoice in Dec 2016, and received payment in Jan 2017. When I pay taxes on this income, does that count towards 2016 or 2017?  The context of my question is US federal taxes.
8576
I am a post-graduate student and I got a scholarship for a training course and to attend a conference in the UK. I totally depend on my father so how should I answer the question about whether I have any other income or savings?
64094
I am referring more to young scientists after the PhD than professors, although I am also wondering about people with a stable position.   I see many people overworking themselves, burning-out, being overworked and with pressure to work well, fast, and produce a lot (publications). I am discussing an average person who has completed a PhD that has all the skills for the job. Let's leave the top professors 5-10% of the field that are super-productive for whatever reason, those are exceptions. I also assume that there is passion for research, but that work balance is also important.  Is it possible to survive/remain in academia by working normal hours (8-9 hours per day) without working evenings, weekends, holidays, without feeling guilty about taking a 2-3 weeks vacation? I imagine to become professor would include many of the above sacrifices. Some professors (tenured) have told me they work 50-60-70 hours per week.  Is overworking basically the rule/working culture in academia? Is it unusual to reach/maintain a stable position in academia without regularly overworking?  Consider mentioning the cultural, country, institution type of your answer, as there are variations in different contexts.
103018
This question is specifically aiming at the UK PhD admission system.   Having spent roughly 6 years in the UK - 2 years A-Level and 4 years undergraduate, I am now moving forward into applying for PhD programs. To my surprise, I discovered that I would have to face a lot of difficulties regarding my eligibility for funding.   Most of the funding I applied for were strictly 'UK/EU citizens only', and it is rare to have full funding for international students. I have applied to a lot of places, and received a lot of responses in the form of "... you are a good match, but I don't have funding for overseas students...".  Having chosen the UK to study with the belief that 'as long as I am competent I should be qualified for the job', the reality has really slapped back at me.   Why such discriminations are allowed in a developed country like the UK? I made this claim knowing little to nothing about the US or other countries' systems, but lots of my friends having applied to EU PhDs received their offers without being asked whether they are 'caucasians' or not.