Consumer complaint received 2020-05-16
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: CT
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
This formal complaint is in regards to the misconduct of the private student loan company Sallie Mae 's misreporting of the amount I was entitled to for the student loan interest deduction on my 1098-E tax document. According to Sallie Mae, in the attached document that I received from Sallie Mae in the mail via USPS with my corrected 1098-E form, it was through a system error that caused a misreporting of the amount on my 1098-E tax form. On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with a Sallie Mae representative named XXXX, for which I asked him if this misreporting of the data was reported to the Internal Revenue Service ( IRS ) so that they're aware of the system error? XXXX said that Sallie Mae had reported this misreporting to the IRS and that they're aware of the situation regarding Sallie Mae 1098-E forms. XXXX told me that I should seek council from a tax professional about the path going forward towards making corrections to both my IRS & State 1040 tax forms for tax year XXXX. Myself, as well as millions of other affected Sallie Mae customers should not have to spend their precious time and hard-earned money to correct an egregious act of criminal negligence committed by Sallie Mae. Additionally, the timing for which Sallie Mae committed this civil wrong during the worst global pandemic in 100 years and the social and economic strain that Sallie Mae customers are already facing before this act of negligence took place makes it even more egregious in nature. From what XXXX said, it seems to me that just because Sallie Mae reported this misrepresentation of data to the IRS that they are all of a sudden all moral and free and clear from any civil wrongdoing. Although according to XXXX 's testimony, the IRS was notified about this misreporting, it is still an egregious act of criminal negligence on the part of Sallie Mae for this misreporting of data. It is not right that I as a U.S. taxpayer must do my due diligence in making sure that my tax forms are 100 % accurate before submitting them in order to prevent being subjected to civil penalties and fines ; but a big company like Sallie Mae can misreport the tax data on millions of student borrowers, causing them through no fault of their own to misreport their student loan interest deduction totals without facing any penalties like myself as a taxpayer would face if I misreported on my tax documents is simply wrong in its entirety. It seems to me that in this particular situation, the big corporation Sallie Mae 's priorities are more important than the priorities of the little student borrower/taxpayer who's just trying to payback his student loans, while legally being able to deduct on his tax forms the maximum amount of student loan interest he can to reduce his overall tax liability. I am looking forward to working hand-in-hand with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) to seek legal remedies for the civil wrongs committed against me and millions of other Sallie Mae customers who's 1098-E tax form data was misreported by Sallie Mae.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation