Yeah, this was a unique masters-degree program where I had to sign a contract. If I do not keep my part of the contract, I would ultimately have to pay my employer back (not the school). Therefore, this would be similar to a business expense which employees don’t have to pay income tax as the employer takes the tax benefit. I feel like I also remember being told at one point that I would not be able to claim tax credit for this as the tuition expense was already paid up front.
In a worst-case scenario, the large company I work for would have included any tuition that I would have owed income tax on the W2 and that would have automatically been included in my tax filings anyway and I would have just failed to claim tax credit on it. Now that school is over and those few years of filing are past, I guess I have nothing to worry about as state and IRS approved everything and I filed consistently at the time.
