With tax season underway, students at Texas Wesleyan University are building professional skills and participating in service learning through a volunteer tax preparation course.
Students learn the basics of tax law, how to input earnings and credits as well as the ethics involved in tax preparation. Then they take an online test for the IRS certification that allows them to help.
Lesley Orona, a junior accounting major with aspirations of someday owning her own tax business, took the course last spring. While she was nervous because it was her first foray into the professional world, Orna said she had a great experience and walked away with new skills.
“I definitely worked on my communication skills, on communicating with the people that I was working with and with the other volunteers,” she said. “That definitely helped me, and I feel like that’ll help me later on as well.”
ADVERTISINGSuch experiences and confidence is the goal of the elective class, which started in 2018 through a collaboration with United Way of Tarrant County, said Kimberly Webb, an accounting professor at Texas Wesleyan who teaches the course.
Last year, 10 enrolled students made up 7.4% of local volunteers. They racked up 657 volunteer hours that represented 12% of the total hours put in by volunteers.
“We’re small, but powerful,” Webb said.
This spring, 22 students enrolled — the largest class size since the course began, she said.
Getting help filing a tax return is not cheap, and some preparers take advantage of clients, Webb said. The goal of the volunteer program is to help those who are low-income, disabled, older adults or who have limited English proficiency to ensure they file and receive their refunds.
“When you think about low-income taxpayers, just a little bit of a tax refund can really make a difference for them,” she said.
United Way of Tarrant County is a local administrator of the nationwide Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program from the IRS. The assistance is available to individuals and families who make $69,000 or less per year.
Students spend the first month of the course with an outside instructor who trains them on how to be a volunteer tax preparer. Webb and the instructor create homework so the students can practice leading up to their certification tests.
“The training kind of starts at ground zero, assuming people have never done taxes before, which is a good assumption when you’re working with students because most of them have no idea what it’s about at all,” she said.
Students from other area universities volunteer for the program. Webb said Texas Wesleyan may be the only school to offer class credit, at least to her knowledge.
The goal is for students to complete 60 volunteer hours. Most reach it, Webb said. They also keep a journal and reflect upon what they learned from volunteering.
The class is an opportunity for students to develop professionalism, communication skills and technological literacy, she said.
The students learn how to present themselves professionally, communicate complicated subjects effectively, use tax preparation software and navigate situations with clients who may be frustrated that the outcome of their return is not what they expected.
The class draws accounting majors as well as those in other related fields, including marketing, management and general business.
Experience interacting with clients in a professional way has a wide applicability, Webb said.
“From a business communications standpoint, and professional environment standpoint, anybody can benefit from that, regardless of their major,” she said.