Monday, December 23

The second stimulus package allows employers to offer student loan assistance

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From 2019, 8% of companies began offering assistance for the payment of student loans Employer-sponsored educational benefits aren’t entirely new – big business, from Starbucks to Walmart. Photo: Pexels

A provision in the latest economic stimulus package to address the consequences of Covid – 19 allows employers to contribute to student loans of your workers tax free up to $ 5, 520 Dollars. The trend is gaining momentum among employers who view it as a job recruitment and retention tool.

As of 2019, he 8% of companies began to offer assistance for the payment of student loans, according to a survey of 2, 1200 resource representatives Human Resources carried out by the Society for Human Resources Management. This was greater than 4% in 2018. More are expected to join, following the stimulus legislation.

The Employer-sponsored educational benefits are not entirely new: large companies, since Starbucks to Walmart, offer benefits related to education, and others like Chegg offer, specifically, payment assistance for their

The new provision makes this more acceptable to companies, since employers ‘contributions to their workers’ student debt are tax-free and not increase the employee’s gross income. The Cares Act focused on this issue to exclude employers from spending resources for taxes on a qualified educational loan.

The mechanics of the benefit of student loan , from amount to employee eligibility , is predetermined by the employer. According to the Goodly platform, dedicated to calculating benefits for students, Average employees owe about $ 80, 01 dollars for a student debt.

The size of the contributions of each employer varies from $ 25 dollars up to a maximum of $ 400 dollars per month for an employee. As of November 2020, employees, who are part of a company for a year, they could choose to have their employer contribute $ 80 or $ 200 dollars to the payment of your student loan.

It is recommended that each interested in the subject, consult with the human resources areas of their companies to find out if they provide this type of benefits, as well as advise on how the schemes will be payment in accordance with the provisions of the current law of the second stimulus package approved in December.

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