Recently I attended a Lunch-and-Learn on March 3, 2010 at John Marshall’s

Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits surrounding the issue of Tax Planning for
students. Mr. James Biege of the Central Chicagoland H & R Block Headquarters
enlightened the crowd to the numerous tax advantages available to both undergraduate
and post-undergraduate students across the nation. I found the lecture extraordinarily
helpful to many of us currently tackling the ziggurat of law school.

Between staying on top of our readings, research, internships/externships, part-

time jobs, and finals preparations, worrying about taxes seems to naturally sink to the
bottom of the priorities list…and that is totally normal. But lets not forget about taxes!
The overwhelming bulk of our government’s budget pools directly from income taxation.
Some of us may not agree with the current administrations’s spending policies, but it is
always important that everyone does their share to keep the United States the most
coveted place to live in the world. Out of the myriad of questions Mr. Biege tackled,
we’ll cover two of the questions most frequently asked by students.

“As a student, am I required to file an income tax return this year?” Like all
good law school questions, the answer is invariably, “maybe.” The answer depends on
how much a student worked during the 2009 tax year. As of 2009, the standard
deduction for an individual without any qualified dependants is $5,700. This amount can
be found on any current 2009 Form 1040’s. This amount is deducted from yearly
earnings and does not have any prerequisites. Therefore, students making less than
$5,700 have no taxable income for the tax year 2009. Therefore in most cases, students
without taxable income do not have to file a 2009 tax return. However, it still may be in
a student’s best interest to file if his employer has withheld earnings on his paycheck.
That amount can find its way back to Jane Taxpayer in the form of a refund either
directly deposited into a personal bank account or delivered in the mail!.

“What other tax breaks are available to students?” For one, the current
administration has tweaked the once famous “Hope Education Credit” and renamed it the
“Lifetime Learning Credit.” This credit grants a credit of up to $2,000 on the first
$10,000 spent on college tuition. Although we are not in college any longer, the IRS
does allow us to amend our prior tax returns filed for the last three years in order for us to
take advantage of credits we may not have known about at the time we filed. Students
need not have fulfilled any minimum hour-per-semester requirements in order to qualify,
but only that the school attended must satisfy the “Qualified Educational Institution”
requirement. An eligible educational institution is a college, university, vocational
school, or other post-secondary edicational institution eligible to participate in a student
aid program administered by the U.S. Department of Education. Almost any school
satisfies this requirement, which translates to this being one of the most easily obtainable
tax credits out there!
 Finally, student loan interest can also serve as a valuable tax reduction tool.
Although subject to gradual phase-out to higher income earners, the Federal Government
wants to reward people for taking education seriously and bettering their future by
granting this deduction. So come April 15th, as a student or recent graduate paying back
loans, expect to alleviate the tax burden just a little bit more.…