Do I have to pay taxes on tuition remission?

[Anonymous]

I receive tuition remission as an employee of a university. That means I do not pay the school any money for tuition. It gets reported on my 1098t as scholarship/grant, although in reality it is part of my contract as an employee.

[DDollar · Accepted solution]

No. A school may provide its employees with tuition breaks, or cash grants for payment of tuition, without that benefit being considered taxable income to the employee. The only exceptions to this rule are if a choice is offered between cash and the tuition reduction, or if the availability of the benefit discriminates in favor of highly compensated employees. If this discrimination occurs, the benefit is taxable, but only to the highly compensated employees.