Student Payments Tool – page 2

Contact OHR

To determine non-resident alien status, send a spreadsheet of all international payment recipients with legal name, employee ID (if possible), and email address to OHR Payroll, Glacier@ohr.wisc.edu to confirm tax status via Glacier.

Determining whether a payment is compensation

• If the primary purpose of payment is to compensate the student for services provided to the University or if the primary beneficiary of the student's actions is the University, the payment is compensatory rather than scholarship.
• Evidence that a payment is compensation includes:
  • The University has direction and supervision over the student's activities;
  • The student's study/research is primarily for the benefit of the University (e.g. the student is working on a faculty member's research project);
  • The payment is for past, present or future services
  • Someone else would have been hired to do the work if the student were not doing it;
  • Payment is contingent upon the student completing a body of work for the University and can be withdrawn if the student discontinues his or her work or activity.

Please note: The fact that a student must submit periodic reports to the University is not, by itself, evidence of compensation. If the sole criterion for receipt of payment is that the student is enrolled in good standing, the transaction is likely not compensation.

FELLOWSHIPS: generally an amount paid to support a student in the pursuit of advanced research or studies in a specific field (without associated teaching or research responsibilities that comes with teaching or research assistantship positions). It may include payments to students for training and support related to projects pursued outside the normal curriculum. These payments are often monthly recurring payments, processed through payroll and treated the same as Scholarships by the IRS.

Prize: Something of value conveyed as a result of chance or judged competition, generally for promotional purposes, to one or more participants in a University-sponsored event, which was demonstrably open to both students and non-students.  In order for a payment to be considered a prize, there must have been a real possibility for non-students to win the prize. If only UW-Madison students were eligible, the transaction is a student award in the nature of a scholarship. An example of a prize would be a drawing for a gift certificate where everyone in attendance is eligible to win.  The anticipated benefits of awarding a prize must be documented, and the decision to award prizes must be approved in writing by the chancellor or his/her designee.  (https://www.wisconsin.edu/uw-policies/uw-system-administrative-policies/prizes-awards-and-gifts/)

If ANY of the following conditions are met the prize is considered a scholarship and should be processed through SIS as a scholarship:

• Eligibility to participate in the contest or drawing is restricted to students.
• The recipient is required to use the prize for educational purposes.
• The contest or drawing is related to the student’s university courses or degree completion.
• The prize awarded for winning the contest or drawing in cash or a non-cash item that can be used for educational purposes or to pay for expenses included in the student’s cost of attendance.

Use PIR Process.

Prize/Competition: Use account code 3750

Research support payments for UW System student: Use account code 5709

Use WISH/Bursar Scholarship Process