<prompt> Human: Can someone please explain why student loan payments aside from interest payments are not tax deductible? With public service loan forgiveness about to start making its first forgiveness payments this October, Id imagine the government is going to take a big hit financially with this. Thus, it makes sense to me for student loan payments to be tax deductible so it incentivizes students to pay off their debt in full instead of trying to get loan forgiveness. Also just fyi, I am very naive when it comes to the financial world so please forgive me if my reasoning doesnt make logical sense.  <response>: Because Congress didnt vote to make it deductible.Edit: And no, I dont see how it being tax deductible benefits the government. For someone in your situation, it makes sense to pay as little as possible each month. In your situation, paying more because its tax deductible doesnt make any sense. Give me 5. Ill give you 1 of it back. Great deal right?For someone in a situation where they plan to pay the full amount off, it makes sense for the government to encourage them to pay the minimum amount each month since then they get the most in interest and tax revenue is unaffected.For someone whos planning to have it forgiven and the forgiven amount is taxable, depending on the math its possible the government could come out ahead. But Im also not going to do the math. But thats on a 20-30 year horizon depending on the plan and any benefit would be outweighed by the other two groups anyway. 