Emily Pearson, a senior accounting major from Douglass in Stephen F. Austin State University’s Nelson Rusche College of Business, discusses possible tax deductions with her client at the Tax-Aide location in the Judy B. McDonald Nacogdoches Public Library in Nacogdoches. Three SFA business students volunteered this year to help local residents complete their taxes through the American Association of Retired Persons Foundation’s Tax-Aide program, the nation’s largest free tax assistance and preparation service.
Established in 1968 by the American Association of Retired Persons Foundation, the program is the nation’s largest free tax assistance and preparation service. It’s available to taxpayers of all ages, though it focuses on taxpayers who are over age 50 and have low to moderate income. Taxpayers do not need to be AARP members to use the service.
Last year, nearly 28,000 Tax-Aide volunteers helped secure almost $1.3 billion in total refunds for more than 1.7 million people, according to the Tax-Aide website. The program hosts more than 3,600 tax assistance sites nationwide, and one of those is located in the community room at the Judy B. McDonald Public Library in Nacogdoches.
Mary Markworth, coordinator for the Nacogdoches Tax-Aide site, said she was excited to welcome three SFA students — two undergraduate business students and one accounting graduate student — as Tax-Aide counselors this year.
“Their participation allowed us to serve more taxpayers,” she said. “Our site also benefited from one of the students being a Spanish speaker. I am hopeful more students will participate in the future.”
The students volunteered on Monday and Wednesday mornings — roughly 10 hours per week — from February through April 9 to help local residents complete their taxes for the Internal Revenue Service by the April 15 deadline. To prepare for their volunteer work, the students took the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or VITA, advanced certification exam, which shows they are qualified to help clients with their taxes.
“The IRS requires all Tax-Aide volunteers to take this exam every year — whether they are licensed CPAs, have been doing this for decades or this is their first year,” said Dr. Charles Oberweiser, assistant professor of accounting at SFA who connects student volunteers with Tax-Aide. “The free exam takes three or four hours, and the students studied for and took their exams over winter break.”
Both the undergraduate students also completed SFA’s “Federal Income Tax” course in the fall.
“It isn’t easy to qualify to be a counselor, and I was proud that they finished all the necessary courses and tests to become certified,” Markworth said.
Oberweiser agrees.
“For the students to be able to obtain the IRS certification after just a single tax class shows both their hard work and the quality of an SFA education in preparing students for real-world challenges,” he said. “While we have a second set of eyes on every tax return, these students meet the same rigorous standards required of any volunteer.”
Vivian Bivens, a senior finance major from Granbury, said she volunteered to be a Tax-Aide counselor so she could offer a valuable service to the community at no cost.
“Tax preparation can be expensive, and many individuals end up filing their taxes on their own, often missing out on important deductions and credits they may be eligible for,” Bivens said. “By volunteering, I hoped to help bridge that gap and ensure people receive accurate tax returns. Additionally, I recognized that the skills and knowledge I would gain through this experience would be incredibly useful for both myself and my family in the long run.”
Bivens plans to pursue a career in financial advising, and her Tax-Aide volunteer work helped her hone her accounting skills.
“Learning about taxes can be challenging, but this program offers a great opportunity to grow your skills and knowledge before entering the job market,” she said. “Through my volunteer work, I’ve learned that taxes don’t have to be a reactive process. There is a proactive element where you can develop a strategy for how you spend and save in order to optimize your overall financial plan.”
In addition to gaining real-world experience for her career as a tax accountant, Emily Pearson, a senior accounting major from Douglass, said she volunteered for Tax-Aide to learn how to build relationships with her future clients.
“I have already had an interview for an internship where the interviewer was more interested in the fact that I had experience talking with clients than completing the actual returns,” she said. “All the clients I helped were so kind and grateful that we were there to help them complete their taxes, even when it turned out they owed money.”
One of Pearson’s clients asked her if her mother was still alive, and when Pearson said yes, the client said, “Well, you tell her she did an amazing job!”
“That interaction felt very rewarding,” Pearson said. “I did go home and tell my mother!”
Pearson added that many of the clients could not believe Tax-Aide was a free service.
“This experience did give me some insight into the economic challenges this population faces,” she said. “Not only from actually looking at their information, but from my interactions with them. Many of them, when expressing their gratitude, explained how they did not have the resources to pay anyone to do their taxes.”
Though challenging at first, Bivens and Pearson said their tax counseling work grew easier with the help of SFA faculty members and their fellow volunteers.
“Thankfully, Dr. Oberweiser, who volunteered alongside us, was extremely supportive and helped me gain confidence,” Bivens said. “I would definitely volunteer for this program again because of the value it adds to the community.”
Pearson said she also would volunteer for the program again and she appreciated being able to meet and work with other Tax-Aide counselors.
“All the other volunteers for Tax-Aide were incredibly kind and willing to help me with any questions I had,” she said. “I loved having the opportunity to hear about their experiences working in the field of tax and get any advice from them I could.”
To learn more about the real-world opportunities you can pursue in SFA’s Schlief School of Accountancy, visit sfasu.edu/acct.
ABOUT STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY
Stephen F. Austin State University, the newest member of The University of Texas System, began a century ago as a teachers’ college in Texas’ oldest town, Nacogdoches. Today, it has grown into a regional institution comprising six colleges — business, education, fine arts, forestry and agriculture, liberal and applied arts, and sciences and mathematics. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, SFA enrolls approximately 11,000 students while providing the academic breadth of a state university with the personalized attention of a private school. The main campus encompasses 421 acres that include 40 academic facilities, 11 residence halls, and 68 acres of recreational trails that wind through its six gardens. The university offers more than 80 bachelor’s degrees, more than 40 master’s degrees and four doctoral degrees covering over 120 areas of study. Learn more at sfasu.edu.
By University Marketing Communications
