Announcements 

 

TAX Infomation

----- Original Message -----
From: "Salvatore, D. MS PAO" <Dolores.Salvatore@usma.edu>

The attached Memo was forwarded to your cadets from the Treasurer's office. The SJA office has a free tax service for the cadets, military and retirees. Please encourage your cadets to set up an appointment
with the SJA office to have their taxes done early and not to wait until the last minute. Parents are reminded to forward to their cadets any W-2 they may have received for any jobs they held in 2005 prior to
coming to the Academy as well as any interest from banks or investments they may have in their name.

MARM-FO-MA-T (1) 13 October 2005

MEMORANDUM FOR FOURTH CLASS CADETS

SUBJECT: Income Tax Information

1. Many of you as fourth class cadets have questions concerning the income tax consequences of cadet pay and allowances. This memo provides information from the standpoint of both your tax return and your
parents' return for 2005. It is very important that you share this data with your parents.

2. This memo is based on the tax laws and current rulings of treasury officials. It is, however, informative only and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the Internal Revenue Service or the
Department of the Army.

3. All cadets at the Academy must file their own income tax returns. Each fourth class cadet who entered the Academy on 27 June 2005, and remained through 31 December 2005, has received or had credited to their account during 2005 base pay of $5,030.56. Cadets must report this amount as income from the Army. In addition, each cadet received a $5,060.00 pay advance to assist with the payments of uniforms,
textbooks, computer, software and various school fees.

4. Your parent(s)/guardian(s) must have contributed more than half of your support for the year in order to claim you as an income tax exemption "More than half the support" refers to dollar value, and not
to the length of time support was furnished. Your parent or guardian may properly include the cost of board, clothing, lodging, medical and dental care, education, property and furniture, insurance, etc., they
furnished you when they calculated their level of support. If you lived at home during the first six months of 2005, your parent or guardian may include a proportionate amount of the family food bill, utilities, rent
or house payments, interest, taxes, etc., as part of your support. If you attended college, prep school, or high school prior to entering the Military Academy, your parents may also include the amount they paid for
tuition, books, school supplies, and transportation to and from school as parental support.

5. In determining the value of support furnished from sources other than your parents, you must include both taxed and untaxed support amounts. This simply means that the portion of your taxable pay spent
on your own support must be included, and in addition, the support provided by the Army in the form of food, lodging, education and other services must also be included. Even though the value of Army support
is not taxed as income, the value must be considered when determining who provided more than half of your support. The following chart indicates values of support furnished by yourself and by the Army.

MARM-FO-MA-T (1)
SUBJECT: Income Tax Information

Cadet Pay earned from 27 June through 31 December
$5,030.56
Government Pay Advance
5,060.00
Subsistence (food) (96 days x $6.35 per day)
27 June through 30 September
609.60
(92 days x $6.50 per day)
1 October through 31 December
598.00
Room and Board (Half year per USMA's FY04
Cost of Education Report) 1,480.50
Education (the actual 2004 tuition cost per semester
at the U.S Military Academy)
20,818.50

TOTAL SUPPORT BY THE CADET AND BY THE ARMY $33,597.16

6. In our opinion, if your parent has not provided at least $33,597.16 in support, then your parent may not be able to claim you as an exemption. If your parent has provided more than this amount in
support, then your parent is entitled to claim you as an exemption. Under IRS regulations, if your parent can claim you, you cannot claim a personal exemption for yourself, and you will have to complete a
worksheet to compute your standard deduction.

7. The question may arise whether an appointment to the Military Academy can be considered a "scholarship award" within the meaning of the income tax laws. The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that such an appointment is not a scholarship award and that the education provided by the Military Academy must, therefore, be included as an item of support furnished by the Army.

8. I trust that the information provided, although necessarily general in nature, will be of assistance to you and your family. The above information is provided to ensure that you and your parent(s)/guardian(s) have sufficient data to calculate income tax returns.

9. Any questions by your parent(s)/guardian(s) concerning the proper methods of calculating dependency should be resolved through independent legal counsel, Publication 17, and/or contact the Internal Revenue
Service.

/s/
THOMAS M. REMO
Acting
Treasurer, USMA

Dolores L. Salvatore
Parent Club Coordinator
Public Affairs Office
West Point, New York
845-938-5650
 

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Spring Break 2006

Cadets may depart USMA upon completion of all academic and duty
requirements, but no earlier than 5:20 a.m. on March 10.

All cadets must return for accountability formation at 7 p.m. on Sunday,
March 19, 2006.

 
 

The West Point Museum: Recent Acquisitions

 

A Display at the West Point Museum

United States Military Academy

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

West Point, NY – October 30, 2004

 

On October 30, 2004 the West Point Museum will unveil a special exhibition highlighting recent acquisitions by the Museum. 

 

Containing one of the oldest and largest diversified public collections of militaria in the Western Hemisphere, the West Point Museum is internationally known and respected as an authority on military history and heritage.  Today the exhibits of the West Point Museum represent the culmination of more than two centuries of preserving our military heritage for the United States Corps of Cadets and the American people. 

 

As a department of the United States Military Academy, the museum’s mission is to “collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret historically significant artifacts pertaining to the United States Military Academy from its inception to the present, and the profession of arms as it relates to the United States Army.  As an educational institution, the museum supplements cadet academic, cultural and military instruction in the profession of arms and provides educational programs and services for military and civilian personnel.  As a public institution, the museum stimulates interest in the United States Military Academy, the United States Army and the military profession in general.”

 

The exhibit contains thirty-two pieces of recently acquired artifacts and art that were found to be necessary to tell the story of the United States Military Academy and the United States Army.  As the keystone of the U.S. Army Museum system, the West Point Museum continues to be a leader in the collecting, preserving and interpreting of our military heritage.  The items in the exhibit were selected by the curatorial staff and the exhibit was curated by David M. Reel, Museum Curator.

 

The exhibit will remain on view from October 30, 2004 to April 2005.  The West Point Museum is open at no charge to the public, seven days a week, from 10:30am to 4:00pm.  The Museum is closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.  For more information, call the Museum at 845-938-3590.

 

Specifics:

Exhibit Title:   The West Point Museum: Recent Acquisitions

Location:         West Point Museum, U.S. Military Academy

Dates:              October 30, 2004 – April 2005

Admission:       Free - seven days a week, from 10:30am to 4:00pm. 

The Museum is closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day

 

Branching

To All Parent Forum Members:
 
 A member asked about Branch Night which is coming up next weekend.  On Sunday evening, November 14th from 7:30 until 8:30, the Class of 2005 will find out if they got their Branch Selections or not.  This will be held  in Eisenhower Hall.
 

 This website - http://www.usma.edu./dmi/  will give you everything you need to know about branch Selection.  Scroll down under Military Training to Branching and click on the sites you are interested in.

 
 Remember our archives, you can read emails about this subject or others
that  have been posted on Parent-Forum.
 
 http://archives.west-point.org  - Click on Log In on the left hand side of  the page.
 
 username - parent-forum
 password - web4fun
 
 Larry Smith our WPP-NET moderator summed it up best when he posted this...
 
 Rank in the class is important to a cadet at the time the officer branch  is selected by the Firstie. In branching the first choice goes to the  first cadet in rank in the class and moves downward through the entire  list of the class to the last person in order of merit in the class.  All of the Army branches have a fixed quota and when that quota is  reached the branch is closed and no one else may select that branch.
 
 Post night is another instance where class rank is important. This is  the evening where the Firsties select their first post after their officer basic course is finished. Posts are selected by Branch,  however, so only those in Infantry, for example, go to the room where  the Infantry Post selection process is going to be done. There are always some choice posts and some not so choice. Again, the choices start with the cadet who ranks highest and goes down through the class. Once the quota for any given post is reached that post is closed to all others and the choices go forward from there.
 
 Generally speaking, the last person in the class is forced into a branch because of his/her lack of choice in the matter. That, in cadet slang,  is being "ranked" into the branch. And the lower persons in each branch are left to be posted to the post that no one else selected. What is high and what is mid-rank, and what is low? You be the judge.  That's a pretty easy one for me. If you are number one in the class I  would say you are high. If you are right in the middle, then I would  say you are in the middle. The last person in the class (the "Goat" of the class) is the lowest of the low in class rank.
 
 Does all of this matter later in life in the Army? With a few exceptions, not really. There are a few of the top ranked cadets who get choice scholarships that may benefit them later. Maybe. And the
top ranked cadets militarily make somewhat of a name for themselves as cadets with the officers on post who see and know them and who may later be a commander at another post. Most of the time, however, class rank really does not matter. In my class there were two four star generals.
One was Chief of Staff of the Army (Dennis Reimer) and the other was the Commander of the combined US Special Operations Command (Wayne Downing)(Army Rangers, Special Forces, Navy Seals, Air Force Commando guys, Delta Forces, etc.). There were lots of one, two and three star generals as well. They were scattered all over the class in terms of class rank. Once you get into the Army you start all over with a clean slate and you make or break you career in the Army by what you do when you are an officer.