Student reimbursements are not reportable to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as income to the student if the student can document that the reimbursement:
- Directly supports a faculty member’s project or research program, or
- Is related to presenting at a conference, or
- Is an integral part of the student’s degree work, or
- Is official University Business
Any reimbursement to an undergraduate or graduate student which has not meet one of the criteria above for University student reimbursement will be taxable scholarship income to the recipient, but not reported on Forms W-2 or 1099-MISC.* It is the recipient’s responsibility to maintain records for these scholarship payments.
*Nonresidents for tax are required to have a 14% federal withholding and the payment will be reported as scholarship income (Income code 16) on form 1042S.
To certify the payment is a University reimbursement, the student and Faculty member or Principal Investigator (if paid from a federal grant) must complete Payroll Form “Student Certification for Business Related Reimbursement“. If the certification letter is not attached to the reimbursement request, the payment will be considered taxable scholarship income.
Shared Services/Student Reimbursements University Training: https://training.uchicago.edu/course_detail.php?course_id=1949
Reimbursements should be requested through the Shared Services Portal.
To learn more about how to request a student reimbursement, please contact SSD Local Business Center at SSD-LBC@uchicago.edu and the LBC Grant Specialist assigned to your accounts will get in touch with you within two business days.