The volunteer tax assistance program is run by the Campus Relations Committee.  This program helps students to become certified tax preparers, quality auditors, military preparers, or tax program coordinators.  This is an excellent program to learn a lot about taxes and accountant, meet great people, eat some free food, but also help you in your future career.  It is also a great opportunity to give back to your community and fellow students by helping them prepare their income tax statements.

For Individuals Interested in Becoming a Tax Preparer

Please contact Dustin Huibregtse (huibr010@umn.edu) right away to become part of this program!  We are looking for 15 to 20 tax preparers, as well as 2 or 3 quality auditors and military tax preparers, and 2 site coordinators!  This is the process for becoming a preparer:

  1. Contact Dustin Huibregtse (huibr010@umn.edu) by October 12th to let him know you are interested for becoming part of the program.  If you are past this date, please come to an information session or still email him with your interest.   We may be able to fit you in past the date.
  2. Information Sessions: Attend one of the short information sessions (please bring your resume!)
    1. Tuesday, October 13th at 5pm in Coffman Memorial Union room 326.
    2. Thursday, October 15th at 4pm in Coffman Memorial Union room 326.
    3. If you cannot make either of the above, please contact Jezelle Ryan (ryanx573@umn.edu).
  3. Interview: After the short information session, we will ask you sign up for a short interview (dates are TBD, likely to be the third week of October). At this time, you will need to clarify if you would like to become a “higher level” tax preparer (you will get more information about this later).
  4. Admittance: We will be e-mailing you shortly after the interview to let you know if you have been selected to participate in the program.
  5. For Site Coordinators: If you are interested in becoming a site coordinator (you help us coordinate the program) you will go to Site Coordinator Training at the end of October.  All site coordinators are trained to the highest degree of tax preparation.
  6. 2 Pre-Winter Break Meetings: You will need to be able to attend a two meetings up till Winter Break.  These meetings will be used to help lead you through the process of reading the training manual, discuss any questions, as well as get to know each other.  You will have to help each other throughout the program.  These times are TBD.
  7. Reading and Exams for Certification: Over Winter break you will need to finish reading the manual and take the tax preparation examinations.  These will be online, and should be relatively straight forward if you read the manual.  If you are opting to become certified at the highest level, you may need to take more than two exams.  If you are a site coordinator, you will need to be certified at the highest level of tax preparation as well.  **The MSA picks up the tab for all materials, computers, training and software.
  8. Tax Preparation Timeline and Commitment: When you get back from Winter Break, we will be meeting to schedule tax preparation hours.  The program will have two days of the week (or more) when tax preparers are available to prepare returns for students.  We will also have a Saturday of each month when preparers will be available.  Tax Preparers are obligated to schedule two hours each week. Quality auditors (you go over the income tax returns before sending them to the IRS) will volunteer 3 hours per week (with one most likely on the weekend for the “quality review and submission” meeting).   The tax prep period goes from late January through early April.

So…What’s the Benefit?

This program, though very time consuming (we expect that reading the manual and taking the exams will take about 15 hours, and you will volunteer on average 10 hours per month over three months, as well as about 4 hours of meetings before tax season begins), is an amazing opportunity to learn about the IRS, how to prepare individual’s income tax statements, become certified in tax preparation, and help you in your future career.  You will also learn a lot about customer service, communication, problem solving, leadership if you are in a leadership position, and autonomous work.  Not to forget you will meet many very cool and like-minded individuals, and help give back to your community and fellow students using your accounting and tax knowledge.  Oh, and we feed you!

Please Join the Program!

Contact Jezelle Ryan (ryanx573@umn.edu) or Jiajing (xuxxx391@umn.edu)