{"id":275,"date":"2024-08-09T13:12:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T13:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/?p=275"},"modified":"2024-08-09T13:12:37","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T13:12:37","slug":"employer-offered-educational-assistance-programs-can-help-pay-for-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/tax-tips\/employer-offered-educational-assistance-programs-can-help-pay-for-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Employer-offered educational assistance programs can help pay for college"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>IRS Issue Number: Tax Tip 2024-68<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An educational assistance program is an employer\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/links-1.govdelivery.com\/CL0\/https:%2F%2Fwww.irs.gov%2Fpub%2Firs-pdf%2Fp5993.pdf\/1\/010001912d358e9b-56b5a048-7a98-4145-844c-fc726474d5ef-000000\/htwUPmjeUyVhypMa7VZ0-LAwtEmtUPkWFB7EytcVHak=365\">written plan<\/a> to provide employees with undergraduate or graduate-level educational assistance. These programs allow employers to pay student loan debt and other education expenses tax-free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eligible expenses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Educational assistance programs can help pay for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Books<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Equipment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Supplies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tuition and other fees<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Qualified education loans<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Loan payments<\/strong><br>These programs can be used to pay principal and interest on an employee&#8217;s qualified education loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The option is available only for payments made after March 27, 2020. Under current law, this option will be available until Dec. 31, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Payments made directly to the lender and those made to the employee qualify under these programs. By law, tax-free benefits under an educational assistance program are limited to $5,250 per employee per year. Normally, assistance provided above that level is taxable as wages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For other requirements, see&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/links-1.govdelivery.com\/CL0\/https:%2F%2Fwww.irs.gov%2Fforms-pubs%2Fabout-publication-15-b\/1\/010001912d358e9b-56b5a048-7a98-4145-844c-fc726474d5ef-000000\/0r_3XVRM2GihFZgjIQzL9bYMAo2NYLKrnprK2Rwyz9E=365\">Publication 15-B, Employer&#8217;s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits<\/a>. Chapter 10 in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/links-1.govdelivery.com\/CL0\/https:%2F%2Fwww.irs.gov%2Fforms-pubs%2Fabout-publication-970\/1\/010001912d358e9b-56b5a048-7a98-4145-844c-fc726474d5ef-000000\/tGHXGWs8zeZ3UeMbNalZapP_pID4SEdkBoiFqj32iKU=365\">Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education<\/a>,&nbsp;provides details on what qualifies as a student loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Corporate-LinkedIn-Banner.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-153\" width=\"920\" height=\"314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Corporate-LinkedIn-Banner.jpg 646w, https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Corporate-LinkedIn-Banner-300x102.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IRS Issue Number: Tax Tip 2024-68 An educational assistance program is an employer\u2019s written plan to provide employees with undergraduate or graduate-level educational assistance. These programs allow employers to pay student loan debt and other education expenses tax-free. Eligible expenses Educational assistance programs can help pay for: Loan paymentsThese programs can be used to pay [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276,"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.suryapadhiea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}