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From: pjd@cwruecmp.UUCP (Dr. Funk)
Newsgroups: net.taxes
Subject: Assistantships and income averaging.
Message-ID: <1126@cwruecmp.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Apr-84 13:12:03 EST
Article-I.D.: cwruecmp.1126
Posted: Tue Apr  3 13:12:03 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Apr-84 04:27:50 EST
Organization: CWRU Computer Engr. Cleveland, Ohio
Lines: 28

As a former graduate student, I was naturally interested
in incoming averaging. There was some local debate about
fellowships/scholarships versus assistantships (e.g.,
one kind of money you work for, the other you don't.)
Since the danged IRS publications only address fellowships
(even though more people are probably supported as TA's
and RA's) we called up the local (Cleveland) office.

Now the party (and bottom) line. The "intent of the law"
is clear. The IRS does not want students to income average.
If your assistantship income has been excluded in previous tax
years, it cannot be used to satisfy the support requirement.
Note that this argument depends upon an interpretation of "intent"
and you should exercise caution. (We are not going to income
average after this conversation with the local office.)

One other note. If you want to get by the "flak catcher" who
answers the IRS telephone and wants to send you publications
and can't answer specific questions,
ask for the "Technical Referral" department (assuming all IRS
offices are organized in the same manner.) These folks seem to
know how to find answers in the tax codes, guides and court
records. I suspect they answer internal questions, so I'd give
them a fairly high confidence factor as opposed to your basic
seasonal employee.

paul drongowski				decvax!cwruecmp!pjd
case western reserve university		pjd.Case@Rand-Relay