Hi all,
I am currently a graduate student at an institution where taxes are not generally discussed amongst the student body and the administration has an explicit policy against giving individual tax advice.
For the past two years I've been declaring and paying taxes on my PhD stipend. This year I switched after two years of having a very unresponsive tax professional. My new tax accountant with three decades of experience is now dropping a bombshell on me by claiming that the stipend is a non-taxable event due to it not being on my W-2 (where my teaching salary is reported separately and taxed via withholdings) and my paystub not reflecting it under my 'Fed taxable'.
Would really appreciate some insights on this before signing off and filing. Would really not appreciate hearing back from the IRS in a few years time asking why my taxes went down this year after years of paying taxes on the stipend.
ALL income is taxable unless specifically exempted in the tax code.
Your stipend is taxable unless you know of a specific reason it is not. Not being included on your W-2 is not a reason.
"How to report stipend income" is a very frequent question in this forum because they are seldom reported on a W-2.