Just another day in STEM
You know. I just want to write. I want to write a presentation for my committee. I want to tell them what I’ve done and get feedback on what I plan to do next. I want to write a manuscript about the reproductive biology of sour cherries. I want to fiddle with R and teach myself to understand multivariate statistics. I want to read the ecology textbook that I borrowed and actually learn to speak the language of ecology. I want to read the stats textbook that I have and get to know my way around that most important tool of my field. I want to start planning my next field season, and finish processing the samples I collected during my first. I want so badly to do what I came here to do. What I’m PAYING for the opportunity to do. I want to use this tremendous privilege to my advantage and advance my career.
But I am stymied by this unresolved issue surrounding my taxes. How banal.
The *short* of it is this.
My stipend was reported as “Fees for services” for the 2015 tax year rather than “Scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, study grants, and artists' project grants (awards)” as it should have been.
I began the process of getting it amended in July 2016.
I have spoken with both of my advisors, the HR department of my university, the graduate student faculty in which I am a student, the head of my department, and on numerous occasions, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
The payer refuses to change their practice, which 4 out of the 6 groups above agree is not appropriate.
The cost to me if my T4A is not changed: $392.84
The cost to my payer if they change or do not change my T4A: $0.00
The *long* of it is this.
In 2015, when I started my Masters, I caught wind that our payer (“our” as in me and other graduate students) does not produce tax slips for us to claim our stipend income. Advisor #2, who sits on the board of directors of said payer, kindly asked them on my behalf if they would produce tax slips. They did, for the first time since they started training graduate students (< 2013). However, they reported our stipend as “Fees for Services,” a designation that the CRA codes as income from self-employment.
My payer has been quite clear that the contract that I signed at the beginning of my Masters, which Advisor #1 said was “just like any other contract a graduate student would sign,” means that I am a “contractor.” It says it right there in the contract. It means in the eyes of the government, I am an entrepreneur, not a graduate student, and as such I must contribute 100% of my CPP contributions, 9.9% of my income. Please note that I never agreed to be a contractor, nor was I ever alerted to this fact beforehand, and signed the contract as a graduate student, expecting that I would be treated like one.
I now owe the CRA $392.84 in CPP contributions for 2015.
Other graduate students at my same institution have their stipend reported as bursaries. Other graduate students across the country have their stipends reported this way. I am perplexed as to why my funder does not.
To try to remedy this, I have
1) attempted to discuss this matter with the payer through Advisor #1, which yielded nothing,
2) tried to reach out to them through Advisor #2, which yielded a not-so-kindly trite suggestion that I be sweeter, in order to “attract more flies”, and the story that my request for grad student T4As to be reissued and amended is illegal,
3) tried several times to speak to the payer directly only to have the payer respond to Advisor #1, who would forward me their reply,
4) spoken with my faculty (college), who agreed this was wrong, but who cautioned me that I may suffer repercussions by pursuing this issue,
5) requested a letter from HR describing how the university reports income for graduate students to use as a precident to which they initially agreed, but finally denied because they didn’t want to do anything that might trigger an audit for themselves,
6) contacted the CRA several times to find out that
a. it is not only legal to amend T4A slips, but required by law to ensure that they are filed correctly
b. the cost of reissuing T4A slips is $0.00 and it can be done online
c. I can file a form asking for a ruling on whether I should be contributing to CPP
d. I can file a complaint against my payer because they refuse to report my income correctly
I have never been granted an audience with the payer and in fact, they have been shielded from me by my advisors and the advisors of another student fighting this SAME FIGHT, which hey started in 2013. We are terrified to pursue “c” or “d,” even though they are the most likely ways to finally get the outcome we deserve, because of the “repercussions” that we might face from advisors who can impact our trajectory in science.
I am smart. I work hard. I am successful. I am a good entomologist and botanist. I love what I study and I love teaching. I want to be a professor in a university. And yet I am utterly unmotivated to write my science. I am not being treated as a colleague. I am not being taken seriously. No one is listening to the words I’m saying. I don’t sleep well. I cry a lot. I feel hopeless a lot. I resent those around me for not standing up for me. The financial cost of this problem is being treated as if it were trivial and it is crushing me. I just want to do what I came here to do, and instead I’m questioning why I’m fighting to stay in a department that doesn’t want me.
But I am stymied by this unresolved issue surrounding my taxes. How banal.
The *short* of it is this.
My stipend was reported as “Fees for services” for the 2015 tax year rather than “Scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, study grants, and artists' project grants (awards)” as it should have been.
I began the process of getting it amended in July 2016.
I have spoken with both of my advisors, the HR department of my university, the graduate student faculty in which I am a student, the head of my department, and on numerous occasions, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
The payer refuses to change their practice, which 4 out of the 6 groups above agree is not appropriate.
The cost to me if my T4A is not changed: $392.84
The cost to my payer if they change or do not change my T4A: $0.00
The *long* of it is this.
In 2015, when I started my Masters, I caught wind that our payer (“our” as in me and other graduate students) does not produce tax slips for us to claim our stipend income. Advisor #2, who sits on the board of directors of said payer, kindly asked them on my behalf if they would produce tax slips. They did, for the first time since they started training graduate students (< 2013). However, they reported our stipend as “Fees for Services,” a designation that the CRA codes as income from self-employment.
My payer has been quite clear that the contract that I signed at the beginning of my Masters, which Advisor #1 said was “just like any other contract a graduate student would sign,” means that I am a “contractor.” It says it right there in the contract. It means in the eyes of the government, I am an entrepreneur, not a graduate student, and as such I must contribute 100% of my CPP contributions, 9.9% of my income. Please note that I never agreed to be a contractor, nor was I ever alerted to this fact beforehand, and signed the contract as a graduate student, expecting that I would be treated like one.
I now owe the CRA $392.84 in CPP contributions for 2015.
Other graduate students at my same institution have their stipend reported as bursaries. Other graduate students across the country have their stipends reported this way. I am perplexed as to why my funder does not.
To try to remedy this, I have
1) attempted to discuss this matter with the payer through Advisor #1, which yielded nothing,
2) tried to reach out to them through Advisor #2, which yielded a not-so-kindly trite suggestion that I be sweeter, in order to “attract more flies”, and the story that my request for grad student T4As to be reissued and amended is illegal,
3) tried several times to speak to the payer directly only to have the payer respond to Advisor #1, who would forward me their reply,
4) spoken with my faculty (college), who agreed this was wrong, but who cautioned me that I may suffer repercussions by pursuing this issue,
5) requested a letter from HR describing how the university reports income for graduate students to use as a precident to which they initially agreed, but finally denied because they didn’t want to do anything that might trigger an audit for themselves,
6) contacted the CRA several times to find out that
a. it is not only legal to amend T4A slips, but required by law to ensure that they are filed correctly
b. the cost of reissuing T4A slips is $0.00 and it can be done online
c. I can file a form asking for a ruling on whether I should be contributing to CPP
d. I can file a complaint against my payer because they refuse to report my income correctly
I have never been granted an audience with the payer and in fact, they have been shielded from me by my advisors and the advisors of another student fighting this SAME FIGHT, which hey started in 2013. We are terrified to pursue “c” or “d,” even though they are the most likely ways to finally get the outcome we deserve, because of the “repercussions” that we might face from advisors who can impact our trajectory in science.
I am smart. I work hard. I am successful. I am a good entomologist and botanist. I love what I study and I love teaching. I want to be a professor in a university. And yet I am utterly unmotivated to write my science. I am not being treated as a colleague. I am not being taken seriously. No one is listening to the words I’m saying. I don’t sleep well. I cry a lot. I feel hopeless a lot. I resent those around me for not standing up for me. The financial cost of this problem is being treated as if it were trivial and it is crushing me. I just want to do what I came here to do, and instead I’m questioning why I’m fighting to stay in a department that doesn’t want me.