Student Travel and Tax Issues
Any student reimbursement, graduate or undergraduate, which does not meet the criteria for university travel (see Section a. below), including required documentation, will be tax reportable and should be submitted and paid through Graduate Financial Services (GFS) for graduate students and through the Financial Aid Office for undergraduates.
- Undergraduate and Graduate Students -
Students may be reimbursed for business travel whether or not they are employees, or for degree-related educational travel such as to attend a conference or visit a field site or laboratory facility. In most cases, such reimbursements are not tax-reportable to the
Internal Revenue Service as income to the student, provided documentation is available showing that the travel:
- Directly supports a faculty member's project or research program, or
- Is related to presenting at a conference (a photocopy of the conference program indicating the traveler is a speaker/presenter is required), or
- Is an integral part of the student's degree work (Faculty Certification required), or
- Is directly related to the student's employment at the University, or
- Is official University business.
- Any reimbursement to a post-doctoral student that does not meet the criteria for university travel (see Section b. below), including required documentation, will be tax reportable and should be submitted and paid through Graduate Financial Services (GFS) as a fellowship payment.
b. Post-Doctoral Students
(1) Attending a conference, field site, or off-campus laboratory Documentation: along with appropriate receipts, the department should send to Travel & Reimbursement a signed statement from a faculty member certifying that the travel directly supports the faculty research or scholarship program, or attendance is to officially represent Stanford.
(2) Speaking/Presenting a paper, poster, or serving on a panel Documentation: Along with appropriate receipts, the department should send to Travel & Reimbursement a photocopy of the conference program indicating the traveler is a speaker/presenter. No certification is necessary.
A more complete description of Travel and Reimbursement guidelines can be found at http://adminguide.stanford.edu/36_7.pdf