Sweating taxes?

Get assistance on filing taxes through UCO College of Business

Kaleb Gonzalez Contributing Writer

UCO accounting students are providing free income tax assistance to students, faculty, and the public until April 8 in the College of Business building through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

The VITA program, sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service, offers free basic tax return preparation and e-filing to assist low-income individuals. The program is open 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturdays in Room 107 in the College of Business. All services are provided on a first come, first served basis.

The program’s staff consists of UCO accounting students. Students are required to complete the federal income tax class and pass three IRS tests to be certified to prepare taxes.

“Some of the tests were brutal, and it did prepare us, but I think most of the learning is done on the job,” said accounting student Clark Stevens.

The taxpayer will need to bring all tax documents, including W-2 and 1099 forms, charitable contributions, a photo ID, and a Social Security card. International students will also need to bring passports, visas, and any 1042-S forms received from 2022 employers.

After receiving the necessary documents, UCO Accounting Instructor Riley Shaull said that the program has quality checks to ensure that there are no mistakes in the process.

“Once we have all the documents, a student will prepare the return. Another student quality checks to make sure that they’ve heard everything correctly because it’s easy to transfer those numbers wrong. Once the student has quality-checked it, then a professor, such as myself, will check it one last time before it is printed, and we go over it with the taxpayer,” Shaull said.

Stevens said that it is worth signing up for the VITA program instead of filing through other services, like TurboTax, because it is free, and it benefits the taxpayer and the accounting students.

“The more time that I’ve been here, the more I’ve realized that with whatever kind of return we get, our professors will be able to help anyone understand how that tax return needs to get done, which parts we need to make sure we hit, and what we want to ask for,” Stevens said. The volunteer Income Tax Assistance program will be closed March 13-17 for Spring Break. For more information, visit blogs.uco.edu/ vita or contact Riley Shaull at rshaull@ uco.edu.