Even with a filing extension, income tax returns became more complicated to fill out in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic. With tech-savvy relatives kept at a distance and many tax preparers closed to drop-in appointments, some taxpayers needed a place to turn for help.
“A lot of these folks have super simple tax returns,” said Savannah Brookshire, a May 2020 Master of Accountancy graduate from the Terry College of Business who spent her spring and summer helping Georgians file their taxes pro bono. “They have one or two W-2s and maybe the interest from a savings account. Most of our clients are elderly. They’re not confident enough with computers to use TurboTax. They would rather work with a real person.”
Brookshire spent her last semester in Athens as a student manager for the UGA Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. VITA provides free tax preparation assistance to individuals and families with low to moderate income, those with disabilities and the elderly.
It is organized each year by the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences and staffed by students from the J.M. Tull School of Accounting and FACS’ Financial Planning program. As student managers, Brookshire and fellow MAcc graduate Mengshi Yan helped oversee student tax preparers from both schools.
This year, the student tax preparers helped Georgia taxpayers file more than 1,000 federal and state tax returns and save more than $400,000 in preparation and filing fees. The IRS estimated the statewide economic impact of the services to be $2.83 million.
“When the students first come in, they’re nervous wrecks,” said Joan Koonce, a FACS professor and UGA Extension financial planning specialist. “Some of them are really afraid to talk to the taxpayers, but when they leave, they are totally different people. They have a whole lot of confidence in their ability to communicate with people of all different backgrounds.”
Students are certified as tax preparers by the IRS and earn academic credit for their involvement in the volunteer service. Brookshire said the experience of preparing tax returns helps undergraduates choose among the career paths that accounting offers.
“A lot of students have to decide if they’d rather do audits, advisory or taxes,” she said. “VITA is a really great opportunity to have that experience so you can confidently say, ‘yes, I like this,’ or ‘no, I don’t.’”
UGA has participated in the VITA program for 15 years in partnership with Georgia United Credit Union. Four years ago, the program expanded to include a virtual component. Virtual VITA allows taxpayers to work with their local UGA Extension agent to facilitate remote tax preparation services with students based in Athens. The program now operates in 16 additional Georgia counties representing all areas of the state.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic cutting this year’s VITA sessions short by several weeks, over 100 UGA student tax preparers were able to help 1,088 households file federal and state tax returns this year, representing more than $1.8 million in total refunds.
“It was so great to see what students can accomplish on the precipice of a recession,” said Lance Palmer, VITA co-coordinator and a professor in the Department of Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics.
The Virtual VITA program actually assisted more taxpayers this year in just half a season than it did all of last year, pointing to tremendous growth potential statewide. A significant factor supporting that growth is the expanded space for students in the recently renovated Charles Schwab Financial Planning Center.
“It helped tremendously,” Koonce said of the new setup, which more than doubled the number of computers students could use for remote sessions. “It allowed us to handle more taxpayers than we could before.”