Who qualifies for the student FICA exemption?
The Internal Revenue Code carves out an exception from FICA tax for “service performed in the employ of a school, college, or university . . . if such service is performed by a student who is enrolled and regularly attending classes at such school, college, or university.” To qualify, the student must be enrolled at minimum on a half-time basis. The determination of student status is made at the end of the drop-add period as determined by WU each semester . For undergraduates, a half-time basis is enrollment for 6 semester hours. For graduates, it means a half-time academic workload as defined by the school attended. In addition, a student/employee who is enrolled on less than a half-time basis can still qualify if the individual needs less than 6 hours to graduate and is enrolled for only those credit hours In order to have the status of a student, services for the University must be incident to and for the purpose of pursing a course of study at the University. Whether a student’s se