 "Photo: Kari Rosenfeld/The Daily Texan")
As a volunteer with Community Tax Centers earlier this year, finance junior Stratton Borchers guided one of his first customers to her seat at a tax center.
The woman was elderly and legally blind, and came to the center every year to get her taxes done.
As Borchers finished helping his client fill out her tax forms, the woman began to cry and thanked him “at least five times” for his services and told him that she would not be able to afford to pay someone to help her.
“I can’t say that I have ever felt more proud than in that moment,” Borchers said.
For the last four years, Borchers and other students have volunteered a semester of their time with the Community Tax Centers through a class called Accounting Practicum Students in the class become IRS-certified and provide free tax assistance to individuals of low socio-economic status.
As the program has grown, UT students now make up almost half of the 600 volunteers needed to run the program by Foundation Communities, a non-profit group that provides affordable housing and resources to low-income Austinites.
Volunteers for the 2010 tax season will help complete 20,000 anticipated tax returns from mid-January through April 15 that will be filled out at 10 area sites in Austin, Round Rock and Bastrop, said Jackie Blair, Community Tax Center volunteer coordinator.
The refunds are expected to help bring in over $29 million to the Austin economy.
“Accounting Practicum: Federal Taxation of Low-Income Filers” began five years ago as the “brainchild” of accounting professors Ross Jennings and Steve Limberg.
Lecturer Brian Lendecky took over the class in its second year when he says he was lucky to be “in the right place in the right time.”
UT’s involvement started with about 100 students, but will include about 260 students divided into three sections this spring.
When students enter the class, 90 percent of them have never seen a tax return, Lendecky said. But by the end of the semester, they are certified IRS tax preparers, and will have completed 55 service hours in a tax center.
“The two things you have to do is die and pay taxes,” Lendecky said. “You will have to do your tax return for the next 70 years. Not only are you helping your community by volunteering, but you’re saving thousands of tax dollars during your lifetime by being educated in tax law.”
Lendecky said that his students also learn what it means to give back to the community.
“Some of my students have lived a life of luxury, and their families have been blessed,” Lendecky said. “They learn that money does not necessarily equal happiness, and their eyes are opened to a segment of society not seen on the 40 Acres.”
To qualify for free tax preparation services, individuals must make $25,000 a year or less and families must make less than $50,000 a year for two to four people.
The services help clients with taxable wages and benefits, non-wage and retirement income, itemized deductions, self-employment income, tax credits for working families and students and credits for child or dependent care expenses.
Foundation Communities estimates that its clients would pay about $150 or more for tax services at companies such as H&R Block, said spokeswoman Keary Kinch.
Kinch worked first as a volunteer before taking a job with Foundation Communities this year. She said that in her experience, UT students are dependable and always willing to take cases.
“I’ve talked to many students who had never traveled south of the river,” Kinch said. “Volunteering opens up their eyes to what it’s like in Austin to be struggling on a low income, while adding to a suite of knowledge about the tax code.”
The program held a cupcake social Thursday night for prospective citizen volunteers to interact and receive more information on the tax centers.
“There’s such a need for these kind of services in Austin,” Kinch said. “The more we publicize the program, the longer the lines out the door.”
The IRS reported that $31 million in tax refunds went unclaimed in Austin in 2004, Blair said.
“Our volunteers are impacted by clients in a very tangible way,” he said. “Talking about the tax process is very scary for a lot of people, and it’s a big learning experience.”
Blair said UT students benefit from the program as they learn about the tax process through practical application.
“You can look at tax returns in a textbook all day long, but you get a different experience when you work with a family of four who’s trying to live on $20,000 a year,” Blair said. “Students often say that they had no idea about the poverty levels in Austin.”
Marketing junior John Poynor took the class in the spring of 2009. He said that no matter what the situation, every client wants only to be viewed as an American taxpayer.
“This experience reaffirmed how lucky I am to live in a country where I am free to make my own choices,” Poynor said. “As much as we dislike paying taxes, it is a small price to pay to enjoy the freedoms we receive in return.”
