University of Virginia Library

Egregious Attitude

As April 15 approaches, it is
hoped that this letter will serve as
a caveat to the University's student
employees, and as a catalyst
to correct an egregious attitude
on the part of the University
bureaucracy.

According to Internal Revenue
Code Sec. 6012, "every individual
having for the taxable year a gross
income of $600 or more" must
file an income tax return. Income
from student employment clearly
goes to make up that aggregate
amount. The IRS also requires that
every wage earner attach to his
return a copy of each of his
W-2 forms (Statement of Wages.)
To enable the wage earner to do
so, the law also requires the employer,
i.e., the University, to
furnish his employees with a W-2.

Having impatiently waited for
receipt of my W-2 from the University,
I made inquiry at the
Bursar's office, and was astounded
to learn the following:

The necessary W-2 is indeed prepared
for every student employee;
the bursar's office is presently
crammed with boxes of them. Unfortunately,
the wording of the law
is such that it permits the University
to mail this form only to
those students earning more than
$600 from the University.

Thus taking advantage of a
loophole not available to most employers,
and despite the potential
danger to the unwary student, the
Bursar, "to save expenses," has
had his clerks systematically comb
through these hundreds of W-2s,
and mail only those indicating a
wage in excess of $600. The remainder
are relegated to a cluttered
corner, to be searched each time
a student, aware of the law, comes
to seek the form. Most remain
unclaimed.

I submit that such attention to
cost and efficiency, relying on the
thin wording, rather than the clear
spirit, of the law, does a disservice
to the student without a
corresponding gain to the University.
It would be a simple matter
for the Bursar to mail to every
employee a form the law requires
him to have; mailing costs do not
seem to be a criterion when other
forms, such as Dean Runk's marijuana
letter, are deemed necessary.
Further, the cost of segregating
the forms initially, added to the
time lost in finding individual
forms, more than exhausts any
conceivable saving, both in terms
of dollars and convenience.

It is no answer to say that the
student might easily secure the
form by asking for it; I cannot
believe that all students working
here are aware of a change in
the tax rulings of less than a year's
duration.

In sum, the University still has
time to mail the forms and thus
fulfill its proper duty, while the
student, aware that such a duty
is seldom effectuated, is now aware
at least of the form's availability.