Thread by @kateewallis

Woke up to amazing news: my $268,765 #studentloans were forgiven after 10 years of #PublicService through the #PSLF program! I don’t share this to gloat, but to provide some helpful tips to those in #MedTwitter who have questions about the legitimacy of this program. See 🧵

I was incredibly privileged to not have undergrad loans, but spent over $250,000 in tuition and expenses at a public university for medical school. All of my loans were federal.

The first year of residency, I claimed $0 income for the prior year, so was able to make 12 months worth of $0 payments that counted toward my 120 payments. I made sure to certify my employment by filling out the PSLF form each year and have it signed by my employer.

When I matched for fellowship, I made sure to ask on interviews that my employer would qualify for #PSLF. Academic medical centers that are not-for-profit should qualify.

Each year, I made payments under the pay as you earn program, which gave me the lowest possible payments (at that time) as part of income-driven repayment. I used the prior year’s tax returns and the program calculated my monthly payments.

The recent #BidenLoanForgiveness program appears to decrease those payments further, to be 5% of monthly earnings (compared to previous 10%). (This is what I’ve read and understood.)

When I took my first job as an attending, I again asked to ensure the role and institution would qualify me for #PSLF. I set a semi-annual reminder to re-certify my employment under the program. I kept paper & digital copies of all correspondence documenting remaining payments.

The count for my remaining payments was off the whole time because (I am told) it is an estimate based on how many payments have been certified. This doesn’t account for the lag time between my submission of my employment certification and the receipt of confirmation.

But I kept count of how many months had passed and in the end, the certification of my employment “caught up” to where I knew I was by the number of calendar months. This was easily visualized and tracked in my online account.

Finally, there is a lot of chatter about tax ramifications for #PSLF. As you can see, the forgiven amount is NOT considered income or a gift. If it were otherwise, the taxes owed would easily have amounted to more than my annual salary.

Hope this is helpful. Happy to answer any questions if I can provide some solace that the #PSLF program exists and actually works if you do your due diligence!