When a department wishes to present an award in the form of a check to a Stanford graduate student, Stanford administrators, in cooperation with the payment recipient, can complete the SU-21 Fellowship/Award Form and forward it with supporting documents to Payroll for processing.
For undergraduates, contact the Financial Aid Office for all award payments.
- When an award with a check cannot be presented in person, a fellowship award can be added to a graduate student’s account.
Request an Award Check for a Stanford Student
Before You Start
- Open the SU-21 Fellowship/Award Form
The form will be printed for signatures after all seven sections have been completed online.
- Select Award
- Enter Graduate Payee Name (last, first)
Select Stanford University 8-Digit Number (preferred) and enter the ID number
If the payee is from a country with a tax treaty with the U.S. and would like to benefit from the tax treaty, enter the Social Security Number or ITIN.
- Enter Graduate Payee Mailing Address
- Enter requesting Department Name
- Enter requesting Dept. Mail Code
- Select one of the following delivery methods:
- U.S. Mail (check will be mailed to the payee's mailing address on the form)
- Direct Deposit
- Select Form Attach link to obtain the Automatic Deposit Authorization form if Axess access is not available
- Enter the PTA account information for payment
- Enter the number of payments (#PMTS)
- Enter 1 for one-time payment
- Enter the date range in the From and To fields for repetitive payments
- Specify the Amount of payment of each payment (Each PMT)
- Indicate the business purpose or program description for the payment and special instructions, if any, in the Remarks field (limit entry to visible area)
For Participant Support Costs paid using federal funding, please indicate in the remarks box to use Expenditure Type 52436 – Participant Costs Uniform Guidance (see Chart of Accounts for further description).
Reimbursement to U.S. citizens, permanent residents and residents for tax purposes are taxable to the recipient, but not reported by Stanford on tax documents. Stanford does not withhold tax from these payments. Recipients may need to make quarterly tax payments to the IRS and State of California. See Form 1040-ES at the IRS website and 540-ES at the State of California Franchise Tax Board website. A letter summarizing the payments greater than $600 is mailed to the recipient each January and should be used in year-end tax reporting.
Reimbursement to nonresident aliens of the U.S. are subject to 14 percent Federal tax withholding and are reported on Tax Form 1042-S. Form 1042-S is mailed yearly by March 15. Recipients may need to make quarterly tax payments to the State of California. Refer to Form 540-ES at the State of California Franchise Tax Board website for more information.
- Select I am a U.S. Citizen
- Continue to Step 7
- Select I am a U.S. Permanent Resident (Green Card holder)
The payee's signature and a copy of their U.S. Permanent Resident card are required.
- Continue to Step 7
- Select I am not a U.S. Citizen AND I am not a U.S. Permanent Resident
- Provide the payee with an LA-6 Declaration of Tax Status Form to list all dates of his/her presence in the U.S.
• The information on the LA-6 Form is used to determine the payee’s tax status in the U.S.
• If the payee is from a country having a Tax Treaty with the U.S. and would like to benefit from this treaty, the payee needs to complete a W8-BEN Form. A Social Security Number or ITIN is required in 2 of 7 – Payee Information on the SU-21 Form. - The following documents are required from the payee:
- One copy of their foreign passport
- One copy of the signed DS-2019 or I-20 (sponsored by Stanford, issued from Bechtel)
- One copy of the I-94 Card (Departure Card)
- Completed LA-6 Declaration of Tax Status Form
- Enter the preparer’s name
- Enter the preparer’s SUNet ID
- Enter the approval date
- Print completed SU-21 Form
- Collect payee’s signature in the 5 of 7 – Declaration of Tax Status and Payee's Signature section where tax status selection is made and/or required documents
- Collect approval signature, approver's SUNet ID and approval date
- Attach all required supporting documents to the completed SU-21 Form
- Scan and send completed and signed SU-21 Fellowship/Award form and supporting documents via secure email to @email (put Secure: anywhere in the subject line of the message)
- Alternatively, send interoffice mail to mail code (MC) 8838
- SU-21 one-time payments are processed each Friday. Payments to Graduate students will be either direct deposited or mailed to the address on file.