Student loan interest deductable?
Alex and Pam Vandertol
Hello, all
My wife just recently graduated from graduate school with a
master's degree. After 6 years of college full time, and 4 years of
college full time for me, we now owe over $50,000 in student loans. (We
paid for every penny ourselves without financial help from parents.)
As I am a Canadian citizen, but a permanent resident of the US, all
my loans were through the Canadian government, and I pay back directly
to them.
My wife, a US citizen, owes 7 different banks money. We're not
interested in loan consolodation, because don't want to extend the
terms.
We both make good money, and payed about $8,500 in fed tax in 1995.
We have no house, no kids, no deductions. (We can still sneak in on
the 1040EZ). Is there anything we can do to lower our liability? Can
I file a Canadian tax return and try to get some of my interest back?
Can I deduct Student loan interest (I used to be able to in Canada)?
Please help, its very frustrating starting out with a huge debt load
and trying to afford to buy a house, and being new to the US I'm not
that familiar with the tax code.
Thanks in advance for your time and effort!
Alex and Pam Vandertol
TomHealy CPA
Re: < My wife just recently graduated from graduate school with a
Unfortunately, student loan interest isn't deductible now. The tax bill
that is stalled in budget negotiations included such a deduction. Whether
it will become law, or when, is anybody's guess. So for now it's the
1040-EZ for you and a real cash crunch.
Tom
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>Unfortunately, student loan interest isn't deductible now. The tax bill
>that is stalled in budget negotiations included such a deduction. Whether
>it will become law, or when, is anybody's guess. So for now it's the
>1040-EZ for you and a real cash crunch.
I'd be surprised to see student-loan-interest deductibility *not* pass
Congress. After all, people don't typically start itemizing until they
have purchased a home, but I don't see how I'm personally gonna be able
to save for a downpayment *and* pay back the student loans. There must
be others out there like me, for whom deductibility won't be worth much,
if anything.
So Congress can make a nice gesture to the middle class without much of a
revenue hit. They like these things. I wonder what's keeping them...?