A provision of the tax bill proposed by Republicans in the US House of Representative could cause graduate students' taxes to jump, Vox reports.
It notes that the bill would change certain tax credits given to students. For instance, nontaxable tuition waivers that are given to students with teaching or research assistantships could be eliminated. Students, typically those seeking master's or doctoral degrees, receive stipends for teaching classes or working in a lab. But on top of that, universities often waive their tuition. Currently, that tuition waiver isn't taxed, but Vox says it could be under the proposed tax bill.
How exactly that will affect individual students would vary as tuition varies from university to university, but experts tells Vox that grad students' tax bills could rise by about $2,000 a year. It adds that most of the 145,000 students who would be affected by this change are seeking degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
"It would really upend the entire American PhD system," the University of Texas, Austin's Claus Wilke tells Vox. He adds that the changes would make getting a PhD out of reach for many, as they would not be able to afford it.