Plus: Tuition cuts thanks to the “big beautiful bill,” and students choose more remunerative majors.
There’s a classic Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin receives an anonymous letter in the mail. In the place of a return address, he notes, “there’s a crude human skull with X’s for eyes and its tongue hanging out!”
He looks up and ventures: “Maybe it’s the IRS.”
Millions of student loan borrowers can expect thematically similar missives from America’s tax collectors starting next year. 2026 will bring the first full tax filing season during which the U.S. Treasury Department can seize defaulted borrowers’ refunds to pay their student loans. This collections tool has been turned off since before the pandemic—but it’s about to come back with a vengeance.