Is your residency salary considered a stipend?

[yadayadadude]

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Is your residency salary considered a stipend or a regular ole salary? (What I actually want to know is, do you have to pay FICA and Medicare payroll taxes as a resident?) I've heard that at Mayo, residents are paid a stipend ... is this true? And do other programs do the same thing?

Thanks.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

This is REALLY complicated.

The question is whether residents are considered students or employees by the IRS.

Basically, Mayo was the first program to sue the gov't to get FICA refunded. Other programs have done so also, but the problem is that if in the end the gov't decides that FICA is due, programs would be stuck trying to recollect all that FICA, so many continue to pay it until this is resolved.

A good summary of the situation, albeit dated to 2005, is here.

Interestingly, the Mt Sinai Flordia decision was recently overturned, so for sure this will continue to be a hot topic. Taking decades to resolve, like most legal issues.

 

[yadayadadude]

Wow, I had no idea this was anything other than a straightforward question. Thanks for the information.

Here's hoping other programs follow Mayo's example!

 

[Midwest Medic]

At my program we are employees and the government gets their share. I think Mayo is the only program that has this benefit so far...And this happened a few years ago with no other programs challenging the government, so I don't know if it wil happen anywhere else.