When is my SAVE plan deadline?

Deadlines are personal: SAVE wind-down waves roll through December 2026, and your servicer's notice starts your roughly 90-day decision window. The servicer notice is authoritative.

What happens if I do nothing when SAVE ends?

You are assigned a repayment plan by default under the July 2026 rules — for many borrowers a Standard-family plan with a higher monthly payment than an income-driven option. Check the default named in your servicer notice.

Is student loan forgiveness taxed?

PSLF forgiveness is tax-free. Ordinary income-driven forgiveness — RAP after 360 payments, IBR after 20 or 25 years — is taxed as income under current law.

Updated for the 2026 rules · rules version 2026.08.1

SAVE is ending. Here are your five options, in real dollars.

Q: Can I switch back to IBR after choosing RAP?

Yes, if all your loans were made before July 1, 2026: you can change to any repayment plan you are eligible for at any time. But months on the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) do not count toward IBR's 20- or 25-year forgiveness, so a round trip costs time. A new federal loan or a consolidation made on or after July 1, 2026 is the permanent step: after it, your loans can only be repaid under RAP or Tiered Standard.

Under Public Law 119-21, SAVE borrowers are being moved off the plan in rolling waves, each with a personal decision window of roughly 90 days. Do nothing and you're assigned a plan by default. Choose, and the differences compound for decades: payment formula, interest treatment, forgiveness clock, and taxes. Here's each option, computed from the text of the law.

What you can and can't undo: if all your loans were made before July 1, 2026, you can change plans later, including from RAP back to IBR. But months on RAP don't count toward IBR's 20- or 25-year forgiveness, so a round trip costs time. The move you can't undo is a new federal loan or a consolidation made on or after July 1, 2026: after that, your loans can only be repaid under RAP or Tiered Standard. Run your numbers before you request anything, and confirm the payment on your servicer's site. Their numbers control your account.

The five plans at a glance

Worked example: $60,000 AGI, family of three, two tax dependents, one $30,000 loan at 6%. Your numbers will differ — that's the point.
Plan	Monthly payment	Forgiveness
RAP — 5% income bracket, minus $50 per dependent	$150.00	after 360 payments
IBR (new borrower) — 10% of income over 150% of the poverty line	$158.50	after 20 years
IBR (original) — same idea at 15%	$237.75	after 25 years
Standard 10-year — fixed payment	$333.06	none — paid off in 10 yrs
Tiered Standard — fixed, term set by balance (15 yr here)	$253.16	none — paid off at term

RAP — Repayment Assistance Plan

Your yearly payment is 1–10% of AGI, set by income bracket; divided by 12, then reduced $50/month for each tax dependent. Floor: $10/month — RAP is never $0.
Unpaid interest is waived — your balance cannot grow. If your payment cuts principal by less than $50 in a month, the government tops up the difference.
Forgiveness after 360 qualifying payments (30 years). PSLF-eligible.
Excluded: Parent PLUS loans and consolidations that repaid one.

IBR — the other income-driven survivor

Protects 150% of the federal poverty line for your family size ($15,960 + $5,680 per additional person in 2026, contiguous US), then takes 10% of what's above it (first federal loan after July 1, 2014) or 15% (earlier borrowers). Forgiveness at 20 / 25 years respectively.
Can be $0/month at low income — but unpaid interest can accrue, unlike RAP.
Payment is capped at the 10-year Standard amount from when you entered.

Standard and Tiered Standard

Standard 10-year: fixed payment, highest monthly, lowest total interest, no forgiveness. For many borrowers this is the do-nothing default destination — check your servicer notice.
Tiered Standard (loans disbursed on/after July 1, 2026): fixed payment over 10–25 years depending on balance (<$25k → 10 yr, $25–50k → 15 yr, $50–100k → 20 yr, ≥$100k → 25 yr).

Family size vs. dependents — they are not the same number

Family size (drives IBR's protected income) counts you, your spouse, and everyone who receives more than half their support from you — it includes your dependents and yourself. Dependents (drives RAP's $50 credit) means tax dependents — the people you claim on your return. A married couple with two kids: family size 4, dependents 2. Undercounting family size overstates an IBR payment by roughly $71/month per missed person.

Pursuing PSLF? Rank plans by a different number.

For Public Service Loan Forgiveness, what matters is the total you pay through 120 qualifying payments — not a plan's run-to-term "total cost." A plan that looks cheapest over 25 years can cost a PSLF borrower thousands more by month 120. Two more things: verify your new plan keeps payments PSLF-qualifying before switching, and save your payment history before the transition — plan and servicer changes are when counts get lost. PSLF forgiveness is tax-free; ordinary IDR forgiveness is taxed as income.

Check your own numbers in 60 seconds

LoanPilot runs all five plans side by side from your real AGI, family size, and loans — statute-derived math, cross-checked to the cent against three independent calculators, computed on your iPhone with no account and no data collection. The comparison is free.

Get LoanPilot for iPhone

Free 5-plan comparison. The PSLF audit tracker is $49.99/year after a 7-day free trial, or $9.99/month.

Quick answers

When is my deadline?

It's personal: waves roll through December 2026, and your servicer's notice starts your ~90-day window. The notice is authoritative — not blogs, and not this page.

What happens if I do nothing?

You're assigned a plan by default under the July 2026 rules — for many borrowers that's a Standard-family plan with a much higher payment than an income-driven option. Verify the default named in your notice.

Can I switch back later?

Usually, if all your loans were made before July 1, 2026: you can change to any plan you're eligible for at any time (34 CFR 685.210(b)). Two catches. Months on RAP don't count toward IBR's forgiveness clock, so leaving IBR for RAP and coming back costs you time. And SAVE itself is ending, so it isn't a plan to come back to. The permanent step is a new federal loan or a consolidation made on or after July 1, 2026, which limits you to RAP or Tiered Standard for good.

Is the forgiven amount taxed?

PSLF forgiveness: no. Ordinary IDR forgiveness (RAP's year-30, IBR's year-20/25): taxed as income under current law — plan for that bill.

More guides

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