Kollel check taxable?

amother ↓

Mon, May 20 2013, 2:19 pm

I'm finally doing my taxes for last year and dh started getting kollel checks last year. Do you know if it is taxable?

↑ amother ↓

Mon, May 20 2013, 2:19 pm

OP here - forgot to say - located in the US.

MaBelleVie

Mon, May 20 2013, 2:24 pm

Call the kollel and ask. There's no one answer for everyone.

↑ amother

Mon, May 20 2013, 2:50 pm

call an accountant.
if the kollel reported it you would have been sent a form of sorts.
accountants have different opinions on how it gets reported or over what amounts etc.

Barbara

Mon, May 20 2013, 2:58 pm

Topic 421 - Scholarship and Fellowship Grants
A scholarship is generally an amount paid or allowed to a student at an educational institution for the purpose of study. A fellowship is generally an amount paid to an individual for the purpose of research.

If you receive a scholarship or fellowship grant, all or part of the amounts you receive may be tax-free.

Qualified scholarship and fellowship grants are treated as tax-free amounts if the following conditions are met:

You are a candidate for a degree at an educational institution that maintains a regular faculty and curriculum and normally has a regularly enrolled body of students in attendance at the place where it carries on its educational activities; and
Amounts you receive as a scholarship or fellowship grant are used for tuition and fees required for enrollment or attendance at the educational institution, or for fees, books, supplies, and equipment required for courses at the educational institution.
You must include in gross income amounts used for incidental expenses, such as room and board, travel, and optional equipment, and generally amounts received as payments for teaching, research, or other services required as a condition for receiving the scholarship or fellowship grant. Also you must include in income any part of the scholarship or fellowship that represents payments for services. Generally when reporting scholarship income on your tax return, you will include the amounts on the same line as “Wages, salaries, tips, etc.” Review the instructions of your tax form to determine how to report any income from scholarships.

However, you do not need to include in gross income any amounts you receive for services that are required by the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program or the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship and Financial Assistance Program.

If any part of your scholarship or fellowship grant is taxable, you may have to make estimated tax payments. For more information refer to Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education.

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Page Last Reviewed or Updated: April 01,

Tova

Mon, May 20 2013, 3:15 pm

We report my husband's kollel checks on our tax return. The kollel does not report the income to the government.

seeker

Mon, May 20 2013, 4:51 pm

Basically, yes. Our accountant friends told us to report it as a fellowship.

If you use TurboTax or something like it, it walks you through yes-or-no questions to lead to the right end result instead of having to decipher the tax rules yourself. But this year, unlike in the past, the form got hidden away in a different part of TurboTax, I think you get to it through education instead of being right there in income as it was in the past.

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, May 20 2013, 5:37 pm

We report it.

miami85

Mon, May 20 2013, 7:08 pm

Based on what my former-kollel-wife-currently-mother-in-law-of-a-yungerman-accountant. I think it depends if your husband has any obligations that he needs to do in order to earn the money such as "behelfering" or being a "rosh chabura"--then's its subject to parsonage, if not I believe it's income, but not taxable.