Actually, it’s not about taxes per se, but state revenue,
The states argued that implementation of mass student loan forgiveness would harm state finances, in part because state-related servicers (such as Missouri-based MOHELA) would lose revenues, and those lost revenues would in turn impact state treasuries. Missouri and other states made similar arguments in the legal challenge to Biden’s first debt relief plan.
Forgiven loans and cancelled loans do indeed cause lost revenue for servicers (since the servicing ends early), so unfortunately this is a legitimate argument. And this this is a state owned company, the lost revenue would have gone into state coffers, so…
It’s also a bit bunk as folks winning the lottery and paying off their loans in full early - which they are fully entitled to do - causes the same lost revenue scenario. It’s also easy to see a technical fix here (Congress passes an updated law giving Biden and the Department of Ed. to pay back the servicers the potential lost fees and such on each forgiven balance, and then the argument goes away. Instead of backing this, though, they want to punish the student borrowers instead.)
Actually, it’s not about taxes per se, but state revenue,
Forgiven loans and cancelled loans do indeed cause lost revenue for servicers (since the servicing ends early), so unfortunately this is a legitimate argument. And this this is a state owned company, the lost revenue would have gone into state coffers, so…
It’s also a bit bunk as folks winning the lottery and paying off their loans in full early - which they are fully entitled to do - causes the same lost revenue scenario. It’s also easy to see a technical fix here (Congress passes an updated law giving Biden and the Department of Ed. to pay back the servicers the potential lost fees and such on each forgiven balance, and then the argument goes away. Instead of backing this, though, they want to punish the student borrowers instead.)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2024/10/03/judge-transfers-student-loan-forgiveness-lawsuit-in-surprise-win-for-30-million-borrowers/
Archive: https://archive.is/fyp6U