By Dezmond Remington
For many students with dozens of responsibilities, doing their own taxes is byzantine, boring, and back-breaking. Though doing taxes is famously painful, there are resources to help.
The student tax clinic is open to almost all students and community members who make less than $70,000 a year. It’s free and staffed by accounting students. Book an appointment through their website, found through Humboldt’s School of Business website, which operates on Wednesday evenings in Siemens Hall.
International students filing international tax forms are not eligible for the clinic’s help, though Instructor of Record for the clinic Joshua Zender, said the clinic will help international students if they are filing domestic returns.
The clinic’s scope is limited to processing tax documents students provide, using the IRS-supplied TaxSlayer software, and then sending those returns to the IRS. Anyone seeking tax advice or anything more complicated should use a qualified accountant. But just because what the clinic can do is limited doesn’t mean people can’t benefit immensely.
“Oftentimes, we find that people we’re serving are simply not aware that they’re eligible for, maybe, a renter’s tax credit, or they’re eligible for a special tax credit because they happen to be going to college right now,” Zender said. “That’s always a really rewarding experience, to see somebody’s face light up and think, ‘Oh, well, I’m actually gonna get money back from the government that I didn’t know I was eligible for.’”
Another tax credit that’s worth looking into is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which Zender said some students qualify for. It’s open to low and moderate-income workers.
If someone earned less than $13,850 for the 2023 tax year, they can file and get all of their federal income taxes returned.
The students working at the clinic also benefit from helping people with their taxes. They get a $1,500 stipend provided by the Smullin foundation, an Oregon-based grant-giving organization, as well as a lot of experience.
“The main [benefits] are becoming proficient and more confident in using tax software to prepare a tax return,” Zeller said. “For accounting students, they’re looking for real world experience doing their field. But a second [reason] is establishing an ethos, or a commitment to serve a community, and in particular an underserved community, and so developing the skills to communicate and help and empower people who need assistance with their tax return is a really important skill to be developed from this experience as well.”
Student David Mata is an accounting student who has worked for the clinic for two years. He started doing tax returns six years ago at H&R Block and enjoys the people he gets to meet.
“You get to see people you don’t get to see,” Mata said. “I haven’t done much community stuff. This gives me a perspective on being a part of this community.”
Daniel Taylor, another accounting student in his second year on staff, agreed with Mata. He said the experience he got from working there was invaluable–and the stipend is good too.
“It’s nice to help people,” Taylor said. “Everyone loves free taxes.”