Wow, what a noxious combination.<p>- A subsidy for a positional / signaling good that will only drive up prices<p>- That is only available if you're renting your labor, rather than starting your own business, investing, pursuing further studies, etc.<p>- And renting it to an employer in a stable / large enough business that they can engage in yet more special purpose regulatory paperwork, rather than a startup or small business<p>- Only applies if you were imprudent enough to take on large amounts of non-dischargable debt to begin with<p>- And targets the disproportionately well-off (simply by having a college degree & job, especially at an employer who can afford to offer the benefit, you're doing better than ~50% of the population).
I really hope this doesn't make it through Congress. We need to reform the education funding system, not continue to enable it.<p>The federal government is already basically putting money in the pockets of universities by subsidizing the loans up-front. Making them tax-free on the back-end will probably have similar unintended consequences.<p>Edit: if you're a US citizen, make your voice heard: <a href="https://emailcongress.us/" rel="nofollow">https://emailcongress.us/</a>
I feel like trying to solve social/economic problems by adding complexity to the tax code is almost never a net benefit. That's the whole reason the IRS is as bloated as it is, and why there's an entire private industry dedicated to income tax filing. It is insane.
Why not make any loan re-payments a deduction instead of only being through a employer.... Otherwise you are favoring companies at the expense of independent contractors.