The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Guest11 wrote:What happens if you just don't file taxes?
Personally, I live in one of the most expensive places in the US for school (not by choice) and I think it's grossly unfair that they allocate the same stipend for me as someone living in a state with much lower living costs. Obviously the taxes are going to hit them much less than they are me.

Guest11 wrote:What happens if you just don't file taxes?
Personally, I live in one of the most expensive places in the US for school (not by choice) and I think it's grossly unfair that they allocate the same stipend for me as someone living in a state with much lower living costs. Obviously the taxes are going to hit them much less than they are me.

kbl2017 wrote:

Deathandtaxes wrote:

CSMajor wrote:Looks like my 25% will give me a nice cushion. I live in a state with pretty low state taxes so I’m probably looking at 17-18%. What percentage was taken out for state taxes for you?

It pretty much broke down as $4500 federal and $2500 state for me. My state has a middle of the road income tax rate of something like 6%.

kbl2017 wrote:I literally cannot reconsider my housing situation, trust me. I've looked everywhere and I know the 1/3 rule. Short of bunking in a 4+ person room with 1 bathroom nothing around here is cheaper than what I'm paying. I could probably pay about $150 less per month if I commuted but then I'd need to pay for a car/gas/city parking which equals out.

The $4000 federal + state taxes makes a lot more sense to me than $8000. For me state taxes are less than $1000 which makes my income tax right around 15%. I've been putting 20% directly into a savings account but I've been extremely hopeful that they won't need it all as I still need to rent a car to get to my SF this summer.

Believe me, I get it. Housing rates are pretty high where I am, too. For me, it made more sense to tough it out with 6 guys so that I had the extra chunk to put into savings. I guess it kind of comes down to the personal preference of whether your willing to sacrifice a bit more now in order to be ahead later. $1000 seems real low for LA income taxes though. Won't you have like a 6% tax rate based on the full year stipend?

I don't think the 3 girl roommates and one bathroom thing is worth the possibility of saving $300-$400. I 100% wouldn't make it through my classes without having a place that was quiet to study. I have 5 housemates as it is and that's pretty rough.

I'm also taxed for Connecticut as I haven't claimed residency here yet, I'm not sure when/if I have to before next year but Connecticut has weird tax laws for low income and full time students. Max rate would be 5% but generally it's lower until you hit 50k. I may have to change it in which case yeah it'd be around 6% for LA.

Deathandtaxes wrote:

CSMajor wrote:Looks like my 25% will give me a nice cushion. I live in a state with pretty low state taxes so I’m probably looking at 17-18%. What percentage was taken out for state taxes for you?

It pretty much broke down as $4500 federal and $2500 state for me. My state has a middle of the road income tax rate of something like 6%.

kbl2017 wrote:I literally cannot reconsider my housing situation, trust me. I've looked everywhere and I know the 1/3 rule. Short of bunking in a 4+ person room with 1 bathroom nothing around here is cheaper than what I'm paying. I could probably pay about $150 less per month if I commuted but then I'd need to pay for a car/gas/city parking which equals out.

The $4000 federal + state taxes makes a lot more sense to me than $8000. For me state taxes are less than $1000 which makes my income tax right around 15%. I've been putting 20% directly into a savings account but I've been extremely hopeful that they won't need it all as I still need to rent a car to get to my SF this summer.

Believe me, I get it. Housing rates are pretty high where I am, too. For me, it made more sense to tough it out with 6 guys so that I had the extra chunk to put into savings. I guess it kind of comes down to the personal preference of whether your willing to sacrifice a bit more now in order to be ahead later. $1000 seems real low for LA income taxes though. Won't you have like a 6% tax rate based on the full year stipend?

CSMajor wrote:Looks like my 25% will give me a nice cushion. I live in a state with pretty low state taxes so I’m probably looking at 17-18%. What percentage was taken out for state taxes for you?

kbl2017 wrote:I literally cannot reconsider my housing situation, trust me. I've looked everywhere and I know the 1/3 rule. Short of bunking in a 4+ person room with 1 bathroom nothing around here is cheaper than what I'm paying. I could probably pay about $150 less per month if I commuted but then I'd need to pay for a car/gas/city parking which equals out.

The $4000 federal + state taxes makes a lot more sense to me than $8000. For me state taxes are less than $1000 which makes my income tax right around 15%. I've been putting 20% directly into a savings account but I've been extremely hopeful that they won't need it all as I still need to rent a car to get to my SF this summer.

Deathandtaxes wrote:

Concerned wrote:Guest 123. If I used the ES form it estimates around $4000.

We are not self employed so we don't owe social security or medicare as our stipend isn't considered for work. If that's the case it means we are taxed at 10% for the first 10,000 and 15% for the rest. Then state taxes are taken out on top of that right?

Is that $4000 the estimate considering both federal and state taxes? $4000 seems about right for just federal, but is very low if it is both. $8000 sounds a bit high to me, I made about $35000 through SMART last year and my obligation was about $7000 for both state and federal, so ~20%. Perhaps Guest123 needed to file as a dependent or had some other tax situation.

kbl2017 wrote:Also. How the heck do I save 1/3rd when my housing costs almost 1/2 of my income? (In LA so no i cant find cheaper housing.)

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

As I said above for me it has been more like 1/5 for me, so you might not have to worry. I would seriously reconsider your housing situation though. 50% of gross income is severally over what is generally suggested for housing. Current recommendations suggest mortgage payments should be no more than 30%. If you want to be a homeowner one day, rent should be lower because in theory you should be saving the difference towards a down payment.

Deathandtaxes wrote:

Concerned wrote:Guest 123. If I used the ES form it estimates around $4000.

We are not self employed so we don't owe social security or medicare as our stipend isn't considered for work. If that's the case it means we are taxed at 10% for the first 10,000 and 15% for the rest. Then state taxes are taken out on top of that right?

Is that $4000 the estimate considering both federal and state taxes? $4000 seems about right for just federal, but is very low if it is both. $8000 sounds a bit high to me, I made about $35000 through SMART last year and my obligation was about $7000 for both state and federal, so ~20%. Perhaps Guest123 needed to file as a dependent or had some other tax situation.

kbl2017 wrote:Also. How the heck do I save 1/3rd when my housing costs almost 1/2 of my income? (In LA so no i cant find cheaper housing.)

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

As I said above for me it has been more like 1/5 for me, so you might not have to worry. I would seriously reconsider your housing situation though. 50% of gross income is severally over what is generally suggested for housing. Current recommendations suggest mortgage payments should be no more than 30%. If you want to be a homeowner one day, rent should be lower because in theory you should be saving the difference towards a down payment.

Concerned wrote:Guest 123. If I used the ES form it estimates around $4000.

We are not self employed so we don't owe social security or medicare as our stipend isn't considered for work. If that's the case it means we are taxed at 10% for the first 10,000 and 15% for the rest. Then state taxes are taken out on top of that right?

kbl2017 wrote:Also. How the heck do I save 1/3rd when my housing costs almost 1/2 of my income? (In LA so no i cant find cheaper housing.)

Taxesss wrote:

Concerned wrote:For previous recipients. Can you give new awardees a bit more info about how you filed your taxes?

Assuming this stipend is your only income, what percentage should we expect to pay in taxes?

How did you calculate your estimated quarterly taxes?

I made approximately $32,000 this year and ended up owing around $8,000. So I suggest saving a third of every paycheck.

Concerned wrote:For previous recipients. Can you give new awardees a bit more info about how you filed your taxes?

Assuming this stipend is your only income, what percentage should we expect to pay in taxes?

How did you calculate your estimated quarterly taxes?

Concerned wrote:For previous recipients. Can you give new awardees a bit more info about how you filed your taxes?

Assuming this stipend is your only income, what percentage should we expect to pay in taxes?

How did you calculate your estimated quarterly taxes?