Employment Taxes

New IRS Publication on Education Tax Benefits. The IRS has issued Publication 970,Tax Benefits for Education to assist taxpayers seeking to claim federal education tax benefits on their 2007 tax returns.

Student FICA

IRS Revenue Procedure 2005-11 Supplemental guidance to the final rules relating to the student FICA exception (January 10, 2005)
Final Regulations on Student FICA Published (December 21, 2004)
Letter to IRS on Proposed Student FICA Regulations NACUBO's comment letter on behalf of the higher education community ( May 21, 2004)

Tax Guide for College Presidents

The American Council on Education in 2003 published an updated edition of their tax guide for college presidents. The guide, which addresses topics such as the tax treatment of personal residence, fringe benefits, deferred compensation, and excess benefits transactions. This useful resource was mailed to presidents by ACE and is available at no charge from the ACE Web site: Federal Income Tax Guide for College and University Presidents.

Worker Classification

Employee or Independent Contractor? The IRS has released Fact Sheet-2006-21 to help employers to properly classify their workers as either employees or independent contractors. Published in June 2006, the fact sheet is the most recent guidance from IRS on making these classification determinations.

Higher education tax professionals might also find the Service's training materials for agents helpful in addressing the classification of workers in various employment scenarios on campus.

Additional information about worker classification and classification correction are in:

Publication 571, Tax Sheltered Annuity Plans -- Section 403 (b) Plans
Publication 15-A, Employer’s Supplemental Tax Guide
Publication 1779, Independent Contractor or Employee brochure.
Publication 1976, Independent Contractor or Employee? Section 530 Employment Tax Relief Requirement