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Legislative Alert

    Federal Legislative Alert:

    Please Contact Your Members of Congress and Urge Preservation of Employer-Provided Education Assistance During the Tax Debate

    As an HR professional and voice for the workplace, SHRM is asking for your immediate action. Please contact your U.S. Representative and Senators and strongly ask them to preserve employer-provided education assistance (Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code). 

    Currently, Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) allows an employee to exclude from income up to $5,250 per year in educational assistance provided by their employer for courses at the associate, undergraduate and graduate level. Although Section 127 assistance is a voluntary benefit offered by employers, an employer that chooses to provide these benefits to his/her employees must do so on a nondiscriminatory basis that does not favor highly compensated employees. Congress extended Section 127 nine times since it was created in 1978, and through SHRM’s advocacy efforts, finally made the provision permanent with the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act (Pub.L. 112–240) on January 1, 2013. Since then, SHRM has been working with the SHRM-led Coalition to Preserve Employer Provided Education Assistance to expand the provision. During the process of tax reform however, the U.S. House of Representatives' tax bill, H.R. 1, proposed to eliminate Section 127 while the Senate version preserved this valuable benefit.

    Currently, the House and Senate versions of their tax bills will need to be reconciled via a conference committee. Members of each chamber have begun meeting to work out differences between the two bills. Once there is a final bill produced by the committee, each chamber will need to vote again on the legislation before it can advance to President Trump to be passed into law.

    It is critical that all members of Congress hear from HR at this key time: Please strongly encourage your members of Congress to “preserve Section 127 in a final tax package.” As voters who can speak on behalf of employers and employees in your area, your perspective is reliable and valuable to your lawmakers.   Below is language you can copy and paste into your email:

     

    Paste this into your Email Subject Line:  Please Preserve Tax Treatment of Employer-Provided Education Assistance (Section 127) During Current Tax Reform

    Paste info below into the body of your email:
    As your constituent, a human resource (HR) professional, and one of more than 285,000 members of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), I urge you to preserve the tax-free status of employer-provided benefits, and specifically, employer-provided education assistance (Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC)) as you consider the final version of H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Section 127 of the IRC allows an employee to exclude from income up to $5,250 per year in educational assistance provided by their employer for courses at the associate, undergraduate and graduate level. 

    As a human resource professional, I can tell you that offering a comprehensive and flexible benefits package is essential to attract and maintain talented employees. Providing tax-free educational assistance is an important tool that employers utilize in order to accomplish this goal.  Preserving Section 127 is imperative because it: 

    o    Addresses the Skills Shortage: HR professionals use training of existing employees to fill open positions. By investing in their existing talent pool, employers have seen an ROI of more than 100 percent.
    o    Ensures Global Competitiveness: According to SHRM's 2017 Benefits Report, 61 percent of employers with 100 or more employees provide undergraduate tuition assistance, and 59 percent offer graduate assistance. This benefit facilitates investment in the workforce and ensures a talent pipeline as employers look to innovate and compete globally.
    o    Supports Public Policy Priorities on Worker Training: States and the Federal Government are currently exploring ways to create employer apprenticeship programs for employers and encourage investments in training of employees.
    o    Promotes Upward Mobility for Employees: Employees who take advantage of employer-provided education assistance improve their opportunities for upward mobility and wage growth. 

    Please ensure that Section 127 is preserved in the final tax package. Thank you for your consideration.