Is Reimbursement for Continuing Education Taxable
When you are considering a job offer, it's always important to look at the "fringe benefits," which are employee benefits that go above and beyond salary.
Fringe benefits include health plans, life insurance, accident insurance, educational tuition assistance, travel compensation, company cars, and a variety of other benefits.
Some fringe benefits can be fully or partially tax-deductible if they meet specific conditions and IRS requirements. Let's take a brief look at employer tuition assistance and how it might affect your taxes if your employer offers it.
Tax Rules for Employer's Tuition Assistance
Employer Tuition Assistance
Employers are allowed to provide up to $5,250 in educational expenses as a tax-free fringe benefit to their employees. This includes undergraduate and graduate-level courses. Anything above $5,250 is generally considered as taxable income.
However, there are some exemptions. If you receive assistance over $5,250 it is excluded from your income if the education is a qualified, working-condition, fringe benefit.
Pro Tip: Taxes can get really complicated. Things are often made easier by using tax-software such as FreeTaxUSA, H&R Block, or TurboTax.
Qualified Working-Condition Fringe Benefits: the IRS defines qualified working-condition fringe benefits as property or services given to an employee, that would otherwise be an allowable tax deduction for that employee – for ordinary necessary trade or business expenses or depreciation expense.
This means if an employee would be able to deduct the cost of the education as a business expense, a necessary trade expense or depreciation expense, then the amount of employer tuition assistance provided over $5,250 is excluded from your income.
How taxable tuition assistance is documented: If there is a taxable amount to your education tuition assistance, it will be included in your W-2 wages.
How to Make the Most of Employer Tuition Assistance
Employers are looking for more and more ways to entice new hires and to keep their current employees happy. One of those is to help their workers continue their education.
Each employer offering employer tuition assistance has its own set of regulations and criteria. Understanding the common elements involved in most tuition assistance programs will help you make the most of the assistance:
Tuition reimbursement – some employers do not pay your tuition expenses directly to the university, and will only reimburse you after you've made the payment.
Sometimes the reimbursement is made quarterly or at the end of the semester after grades are received. This means if you intend to go to college and take advantage of the employer tuition assistance, you'll want to make sure the cost of tuition is in your budget so you can continue taking classes even in the event the reimbursement is delayed.
Sometimes students will pay with a credit card offering rewards programs, so they can gain the rewards, make small payments on the card, and then just pay it off fully when the employer reimburses the tuition expenses.
Minimum GPA requirements – most employers offering tuition assistance require that you maintain a minimum grade point average (GPA). There are some programs that pay 100% of tuition expenses for students receiving an A grade; and lower percentages of tuition for lower grades. Make sure you understand how your company offers tuition assistance.
Major or field of study requirements – most employers require that the courses you take are directly related to your current position, or a potential future position within the company. As long as you can show your employer how the degree or study will benefit them, they will assist you in the class fees.
Must remain with the employer – many employers will also include a stipulation that you must work for the company for a certain period of time after you receive tuition assistance from them – and if you don't, you may have to pay back their investment in your education.
The employer wants to know their investment in your education is going to help them. They want to ensure you aren't going to get your degree and then leave.
It's important you talk with your employer and HR office to get the full guidelines of taking the assistance. In most cases, they are pretty simple, like the ones we've outlined above.
But each company is different, some of them might have stricter qualifications you have to meet in order to get the assistance and not have to pay back the tuition.
Related Post:How to Pay Off Your Student Loans So You Can Get On With Your Life
Employer Tuition Assistance – What You Need to Know
If you didn't know, college is expensive. VERY expensive. If your employer has a tuition assistance program, I highly recommend you take advantage of it.
If you've ever thought about going back to school (or going to school for the first time), as your HR department or employer if they would be willing to assist you in this journey. You might be surprised by the answer.
Source: https://themilitarywallet.com/employers-tuition-assistance-tax-rules/
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