This issue of the Financial Management Office Newsletter includes information about the following:
- Disbursing Department Assignments for FY2025
- Facts may look similar, but tax determination for each is different
- Resources
The Financial Management Office Newsletter is distributed monthly. Should you have any questions about this newsletter, contact Amy Kunz via email: amykunz@hawaii.edu.
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Disbursing Department Assignments for FY2025
Target Audience: All
The department assignments for FY2025 have been posted to the FMO website.
For questions, please call the Disbursing Office at (808) 956-5535.
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Facts may look similar, but tax determination for each is different
Target Audience: Fiscal Administrators and Staff
The following examples illustrate the similarity in the facts presented and yet the tax determination is quite the opposite due to the slight difference between the two sets of facts.
Example #1:
A graduate student is doing research for their own graduate course and receives financial assistance to fly to Island of Hawaii. Is such financial assistance income to the graduate student?
Tax Determination for Example #1: This financial assistance should be considered as nonqualified scholarship. The amount should be self-reported by the graduate student onto his tax return. UH is not required to report scholarship income to the Internal Revenue Service for the graduate student. However, if the graduate student qualifies as a nonresident alien, UH will report this income to the Internal Revenue Service.
Example #2:
A graduate student is doing research work on the Island of Hawaii for UH, not for their own education. Would the airfare paid by UH be taxable to the graduate student?
Tax Determination for example #2: This airfare should be considered as ordinary business expense of the University. Reimbursements for this travel, to the extent of amounts substantiated with receipts, would not be reported a taxable.
Should you have any questions on this topic or other specific situations requiring a tax impact analysis, please contact Kenneth Lum at kenlum@hawaii.edu.