Originally Posted by JohnBurke

The language that you've described makes clear that the repayable amount is the pre-tax value.

If I take one hundred dollars out of my pocket and give it to you, I'm out one hundred dollars. I don't care that you give part of it to your mother, spend part on gum balls, and drink the rest, or give some to the government. It doesn't change the amount that came out of my pocket: a hundred bucks. If we have an agreement that you learn to ride a unicycle within thirty days, or you owe me the hundred bucks, I don't care that you had to pay taxes, if if you bought a nice shirt with the money; it's still a hundred bucks that's owed, and if the agreement spells out that it's pre-tax and the full value, then that's the deal; you owe me the hundred bucks.