Guide to Education Grants

US Representative Lee Terry (R-NE), received an email from a constituent that pointed out how individual taxpayers are allowed to deduct $2,500 in student loan interest from their taxes each year—until they marry.  Once married, the couple is only allowed to $2,500 regardless of whether both spouses are paying back individual student loans. 
In response to this message, Lee introduced the “Married Student Debt Relief Act,” which would double the student loan interest tax deduction to $5,000 for married couples who file a joint tax return when both spouses hold student debt.  In a press release announcing the legislation, Congressman Terry said:

 â€œThe inequity was brought to my attention by Mike Currans of Omaha in an e-mail he sent to my office in January. “The student loan deduction illustrates other unfairness in the Tax Code such as the need to totally eliminate the marriage penalty for joint filers with two incomes. “This issue hit home because student loans and the interest deduction are great tools to help more people afford higher education, but couples should not be penalized simply because they are married.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 10:51 am and is filed under Education Funding News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.