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Forum Post: No Student Loan Tax Break After $75,000!?!

Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 6, 2011, 6:39 p.m. EST by Tachyon (8)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Just another one of the most ridiculous and woefully out-of-date tax breaks. Soon as you get close to the middle class, the government hits you with up to a $2500/year tax fine for making $75,000 a year. But below $75,000, you can write-off up to $2500 a year. Some of us pay $1000/month in student loan payments as it is! Outrageous.

25 Comments

25 Comments


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[-] 1 points by EndGame (3) from Providence, RI 12 years ago

Woe is you. Obviously your degree wasn't related to business. You are not getting hit with a $2500 penalty, you are just paying taxes on a higher taxable income, so the net effect is probably $800 a year. You are making $75k a year, stop drinking your Starbucks every day or cancel your cell phone plan and you are even. This is less than a 1% impact to your income, some people have real problems.

[-] 1 points by Tachyon (8) 12 years ago

What are you talking about? You can write off up to $2500 of student loan interest a year. But if you hit $75K, you can't write off anything. So soon as you border on hitting the middle-class, you are hit with a $2500 loss. I have a mortgage (which is 25% upsides-down from the collapse), I have $100k+ in student loans, I have a good job. But shouldn't the government be focusing on keeping money in the hands of the middle class which have incurred such massive debts, not penalize them for it?

[-] 1 points by loanslave (19) 12 years ago

Please don't do that. We can't just create some random number that somehow signifies that a person is not experiencing difficulties in their lives, or is not experiencing the distress of a government that is bought by corporations. I know people who make $75K per year from their small web business, who pay thousands in student loans, have to pay for their own health insurance (that's upwards of $1000 per month for many families, btw), who may have a mortgage and who have a special needs child that requires a lot of money to keep on track. These people have struggled to put food on the table once they pay all the bills they have to pay. They buy clothes at consignment shops and goodwill or wear whatever they can.

So, please, please, understand that just because you MAKE more money outright doesn't necessarily mean that you KEEP more. Don't ASSume about anyone else's life situation or put people in a box to easily dismiss them - it makes you no different than those we are fighting against.

Plus this movement is not about what income people manage to make. It's about recovering our democracy and getting our government in the hands of the people once again. If any of us someday are lucky enough to make 100K, 200K, 5 million, then good for us - that's what America allows for. We shouldn't hate on the rich - that would miss the point. We should demand that the rich behave responsibly and live by the same rules as the rest of us. I don't begrudge anyone else their money. It's theirs. I just don't want them using it to buy my government nor to buy my media nor to pollute my earth. That's all.

[-] 1 points by OldMan (6) from San Antonio, TX 12 years ago

As a parent co-signer on student loans for four children (with 2 more kids to go) student loans and the effect on co-signer credit ratings is a very sore subject with me. While I would love to rant on private student loans, the real issue controlling the cost of higher education and equitable approaches to education financing. Still, this is not and should not be an OccupyWallStreet or OccupyTogether issue. OWS/OT should stay focused on egregious economic and political protections afforded to corporate entities, directors and officers and their uncontrolled infringement on individual rights, liberties, and freedom in the pursuit of happiness.

[-] 1 points by anonrez (237) 12 years ago

The ugly truth about student loans:

http://www.collegescholarships.org/research/student-loans/

It is more profitable to the lenders if you default and ruin your life.

[-] 2 points by Fallspring (30) from Silver Spring, MD 12 years ago

great link

[-] 1 points by bleedingsoul (134) from Youngstown, OH 12 years ago

You're welcome for government loans getting you a degree to making $75,000 a year. Ahhhh, another Beautiful Story.

[-] 1 points by Tachyon (8) 12 years ago

Actually they were 80% private loans ..

[-] 1 points by bleedingsoul (134) from Youngstown, OH 12 years ago

But your Title says Student Loans? Ummm, you need to use your educated mind and write your arguments a little clearly. Sorry about the misunderstanding.

[-] 1 points by Tachyon (8) 12 years ago

They were private student loans.. which are different than standard private loans. Sorry I didn't specify.

[-] 0 points by OccupyDC (153) 12 years ago

Maybe you should have gotten a degree in Finance or Business and sought out a job on Wall Street.

Many of the firms here help with student loans.

[-] 1 points by Tachyon (8) 12 years ago

I'm not sure if you are trolling or being sarcastic.

[-] 0 points by OccupyDC (153) 12 years ago

I'm being serious. My company helped me pay off my student loans.

[-] 1 points by bleedingsoul (134) from Youngstown, OH 12 years ago

Holy Cow! And your company helped too? I'm not understanding this complaint?

[-] 1 points by OccupyDC (153) 12 years ago

I'm not the one complaining. The original poster in this thread is the complainer.

I got a business degree and work in finance. My company helped pay off my debt.

You have to think about these things when you start out college. You can't blow tens of thousands of dollars on a useless Liberal Arts degree and expect to make a lot of money.

Life is a series of choices. Everyone has to live with the choices they made, not try to force the government to get your fellow citizens to pay for the wrong choices of others.

[-] 1 points by Fallspring (30) from Silver Spring, MD 12 years ago

why are we paying people on wallst millions while teachers and social workers 35k a year. just because you are are greedy and decided to go into finance instead of choosing an "important" job like social worker or teacher doesn't mean you deserve more money.

[-] 0 points by OccupyDC (153) 12 years ago

You are clueless.

My job is IMPORTANT. We mange the pension money and investments for all those union workers whose jobs you think are more "important".

Teachers are NOT low paid. Here in NYC the top salary under the present union contract is $106,000 plus full benefits and pension. The average teacher after about 10 years here makes at least $80,000 and that is without going back to get an advanced degree.

School District Superintendents in places like many New Jersey towns and Long Island towns make over $200,000 a year. The average police salary in Nassau County is over $150,000 a year. There are Port Authority cops making over $200,000 a year. That is why we have to pay $12 just to cross a bridge here in NYC.

You don't know what what you are talking about. The public sector is very well paid. Actually they are overpaid considering the average public sector salary in the United States is double the average private sector salary.

[-] 1 points by Fallspring (30) from Silver Spring, MD 12 years ago

"no you don't know what our talking about," can't you have an adult debate??? stop acting like a child! teachers in WI get paid 35k I am a sociologist so I am easliy qualified to say what job is more important and teachers far out weigh the consequences on society than your invented finance job.

[-] 1 points by Tachyon (8) 12 years ago

What percentage do you think you are in?

[-] 1 points by OccupyDC (153) 12 years ago

I would say between top 5% to 10% of wage earners.

No one ever handed me anything. I worked hard my whole life. I busted my ass to get my degree. I worked jobs while getting my degree. I busted my ass since the day I left school.

My parents were certainly NOT rich. They had to raise 7 children.

Life is a series of choices and decisions. You have to think long and hard about your choices and decisions before you make them because they will affect the rest of your life.... and the lifestyle you live.

[-] 1 points by bleedingsoul (134) from Youngstown, OH 12 years ago

Ahhh Shoot! Sorry about that OccupyDC.

[-] 1 points by Tachyon (8) 12 years ago

He is trolling.

[-] 1 points by anonrez (237) 12 years ago

Good for you. Shame that's no help to the 45% of 16 - 29 year olds who can't get jobs.

[-] 1 points by OccupyDC (153) 12 years ago

That is why you need to be protesting the federal government in Washington D.C.

No companies are going to be hiring as long as the Obama administration is in power.

[-] 1 points by anonrez (237) 12 years ago

Garbage. The federal government kowtows to the demands of the financial sector and corporations more generally. Goldman Sachs rules, not the federal government....and of course they were the 2nd biggest donor to the Obama campaign: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638

Obama is nothing more than a slick marketing campaign. He's not worth opposing. His Wall St Masters, on the other hand, are.