The tax year that you graduate medical school (I.e 2018), as a newly minted intern there are a variety of tax benefits one should be aware of. Most of these stem from the fact that you will have only earned income for half a tax year (July-December) and therefore will be placed solely in a lower tax bracket than the subsequent years of residency.
Lifetime Learning Credit- this $2000 credit is the most important tax benefit you can claim as an intern. Assuming you paid tuition during your last year of medical school, they will provide you with a form 1098-T which you can use to fill out IRS form 8863 which can be submitted along with your standard form 1040. If you are like most interns and your only substantial income is from your residency pay then this credit will enable you to reduce your tax burden to effectively $0. Note: Some schools will bill all of their academic year expenses at once and therefore you will be utilizing the 1098T of the year prior to the you graduate. For example if your 4th year of medical school was 2017-2018 you would utilize the 2017 1098T.
Student Loan Interest Deduction- this $2500 deduction can reduce your taxable income if you made one student loan payment (even first year income driven repayment plans count) during the tax year. You’re eligible to either either the full $2500 or the amount of interest you paid, whichever is greater. Read more here.
These two are the two main deductions and credits that can help the vast majority of interns save some money on their taxes during their first year of employment. Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments below.
As some of you may know, I graduated from medical school recently and in a celebratory gesture one of my friends invited a whole group of us to visit his family home in Skiathos, Greece. It was my first time visiting the ancient country and I was absolutely amazed with both Athens and Skiathos. I spent a great deal of time shooting photos with my DJI Spark drone as well as my DSLR camera. Please let me know what you think!
I recently became the proud owner of a DJI Spark drone with lofty goal of learning how to take great aerial photographs. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with DJI, they are the foremost maker of consumer and prosumer drones. They have a lineup of models ranging from the relatively inexpensive Spark to the filmmaker oriented Inspire series. All of their models come with an extended warranty service called DJI Care Refresh which covers water damage, crash damage and almost any kind of accidental damage possible. See here for details. The caveat for purchasing this coverage is that you only have 48h from when your drone is activated to make the purchase.
Initially hesitant to shell out an additional $59, my logical senses kicked in and I made the purchase for the coverage hoping to never have to use it. Well, about a week into ownership on my fourth flight, I ended up crashing the drone into a tree while attempting to land near a lake. My drone both hit the tree and fell into a shallow pool of water in the process. Suffice to say, my Spark would not even power on after that. I immediately went home and used the dji repair website to file my claim and shipped my drone out the same day (5/7). The service center is in California so it took about 4 days for it to arrive from New York (5/11). On 5/14 the service center tagged my drone as arrived and by 5/15 my replacement drone was shipped out. Much to my surprise, they even shipped the replacement using UPS 2 Day Air which enabled me to receive it by 5/17. DJI even called me on 5/17 to make sure I had received my drone and I was happy with the refresh service.
As you can see my experience with the Care Refresh service was excellent and I really appreciated the fast turn-around time. I would highly suggest purchasing this service with your drone unless you are extremely confident in your flying abilities.
