Can you hear the sweet melody of payday? That day you eagerly await, especially when you have got thousands of unpaid bills. As the digital paycheck notification pings into your inbox, you can not help but feel a burst of joy and a fleeting sense of financial freedom.
But a closer look at your hard earned dollars reveals a grim reality: taxes, the uninvited guest at every payday party. If you have ever found yourself muttering, “Is this a legal daylight robbery?” while perusing your pay stub, you are not alone.
As one enters the realm of adulting, taxes are those unwanted gifts in your life that come to you just by the virtue of a human being. But I am not here to gripe about income taxes in general. Instead, I am diving headfirst into the rabbit hole of taxing the student income that has already been limited to a handful of pennies.
Picture this: a broke student, surviving on a diet of ramen noodles and instant coffee, finds Uncle Sam rummaging through their pocket for loose change. Is it a necessary evil, or is it time to rethink the taxman’s grip on students’ wallets?
As much as we hate getting a pay cut, some argue that it is a lesson in fiscal responsibility. This is seen as an initiation into the world of financial wisdom, so once you start having a stable income, you know how to wisely deal with your money. However, is it not a tad unreasonable to tax students who are already drowning in student loans and grappling with the existential crisis of choosing a major?
Taxes on students feel like charging a fee for a survival course : “Congratulations on surviving your first semester! Now pay up.” It is an effort by the government to make an individual realize the seriousness of trying to be an adult by having these not-so-minor cuts every month.
Now, do not get me wrong — I am all for contributing to society and funding the greater good. But is taxing student income the most efficient way to achieve that? Students are already investing in their education which has its own positive externalities and a huge impact on a country’s future innovation and labor needs. Taxing these meager earnings adds insult to injury rather than achieves the “Good job. You are contributing to the economy!” sticker.
In a world where every dollar counts, the debate over taxing student income is more relevant than ever. It is not just about the money, it is about the principles behind the deductions on that precious pay stub. While, for a financially stable student, these pay cuts might not be too much of a burden, for a huge population of new adults who are trying to settle themselves in this already harsh world, this burden can be a major barrier. Especially, for the full time students who are only allowed to work 20 hours per week, these taxes do not help in making a living with no financial crisis.
Besides, all the educational intentions only seem to be ripping pockets and increasing the stress amongst youth. Instead of offering classes and opportunities on cracking the world of financial stability, the world chooses to throw college students into the war zone of finances with no prior alerts and knowledge.
In a nutshell, income taxes on students are not a good system to introduce individuals with real world finances. Either these should be applied on a need based policy system in order to reduce the financial and mental strain this causes on people, or be removed altogether in order to support the pennies a college student manages to earn by the end of a month.
Leave a Reply