Dear President Hennessy,

Many international students across campus have been reporting problems about receiving letters from the IRS (tagged 5532C) stating there is a mismatch between what we as taxpayers reported on our 2014 tax returns and what was reported on 1042-S forms as tax withheld by our tax withholding agents (Stanford University and other extramural funding institutions). Because of this perceived mismatch, some students have their withheld tax frozen and received notices from IRS asking for thousands of dollars. 

While many of us initially thought this was an individual problem, this is in fact a campus-wide and nation-wide problem, and other universities such as the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania have informed all of their international graduate students and issued official memorandums on this. (please see these links: https://finserv.uchicago.edu/pdf/20141042.pdf and https://global.upenn.edu/isss/news/2016/02/29/2014-1042-s-withholding-credit-denial
)

Some international students at Stanford have been also urging the Payroll Department and the Bechtel International Center at Stanford to inform all international students on campus and respond to this issue like the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania have, but Stanford University has been largely unresponsive to this, asking students to individually send a HelpSU request and request a letter that we can send to the IRS, confirming that our 1042-S form is correct. 

We, the undersigned, demand that the University do the following.

 
1. Immediately inform all international students that could be affected by this crisis

2. Respond to this campus-wide and nation-wide crisis in a more serious manner and negotiate with the IRS on behalf of all affected international students. In this the university will 

• Request an extension of deadline for debt payment for all international students
• Request the IRS to investigate whether this is not caused by issues in their system
• Request the IRS to release our withholding credit as well as our refund, which has been delayed for almost a year
• Immediately provide the IRS the correct 1042-S files, if there is in fact a mismatch
• Ensure that students' IRS records will not be tainted by this error
• Reimburse any unnecessary expenses incurred by individuals.

3. Accommodate international students due to delay in their 2014 tax returns: the university will offer emergency financial support and cancel late rent fees for housing, for those affected.

4. Reimburse affected international students who sought legal and tax advice in relation to this crisis.

5. Hire an impartial CPA or other tax expert on international student taxes who can come to campus to answer questions regarding this crisis and the forthcoming tax season.
6. Communicate the steps it is taking to address the above concerns to all international students in a timely manner as the situation develops.

CC: John Etchemendy, Provost

John Pearson, Director of the Bechtel International Center

Lloyd Minor, Dean, School of Medicine

Richard Saller, Dean, School of Humanities and Sciences

Garth Saloner, Dean, Graduate School of Business

Dan Schwartz, Dean, Graduate School of Education

Mary Elizabeth Magill, Dean, Stanford Law School

Persis Drell, Dean, School of Engineering

Pamela Matson, Dean, School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences