The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced on March 2, 2010, that it had made an administrative determination that medical resident stipends are exempt from FICA taxes for tax periods before April 1, 2005 based on the "student FICA exception."  A copy of the IRS announcement and IRS Q&A regarding the refund procedure can be accessed here:  

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/nr-2010_25.pdf 

http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=219547,00.html.

Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) had filed protective claims on behalf of its medical residents for stipends EVMS paid between January 1, 1996 and December 31, 2003.   In order to receive their portion of the refunded taxes pursuant to the determination, eligible residents were required to "opt in" by signing a consent letter.  EVMS made several attempts  to locate addresses of eligible former residents using a variety of sources,  including a national search firm.  EVMS also engaged the audit, advisory and tax service firm KPMG LLP to assist with the process.  Consent letters from eligible residents were collected by KPMG from September, 2010 to December, 2010.  If you did not receive a letter, you were either deemed to be ineligible for a refund or we were unable to locate you.  As EVMS filed the final claim with the IRS in January 2011, consent letters are no longer being generated or accepted. 

If you received and returned a consent letter, be advised that it could take a considerable amount of time for the refunds to be processed and the IRS has not established a timeframe for the issuance of refunds.  Please also note that the IRS may reject or modify some claims.  If your claim is rejected or modified, we will advise you accordingly. 

UPDATE: November 7, 2011. We have been advised that the IRS currently has the EVMS claim under review for approval. When asked, they could not say how long it would take to remit the claim after it is approved. The claim is accruing interest which will be remitted along with the actual claim. They did indicate claims for the following specialties would be denied: Psychology Fellows; Psychology Internship; and, Research Assistant Fellow.

EVMS will post updates related to the Medical Resident Refund Claims process as we receive additional information from the IRS.  In the meantime, if you have additional questions, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .