This is not my story but a friends. Last year my friend had died unexpectedly only a few months after his graduation day. He had owed well over $100,000. government gladly waved his student loan debt, but his family was required to still pay the taxes on it totaling about $20,000. (art school is expensive) It was sicking when we found this out. His family had to add 20,000 on top of their sons death expenses.