CWU community tax assistance program expands through new partnership

Each year, as tax season warms up and families across the community begin to reckon with a year’s worth of paperwork, accounting students at Central Washington University offer their help to make sense of the annual deluge of numbers and terminology through the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

The program has seen a significant expansion this year, thanks to a new partnership between the Department of Accounting and CWU’s Center for Financial Planning and Well-being (CFPW), an on-campus organization dedicated to fostering financial literacy through programs like Money Savvy Wildcats and the Personal Financial Planning degree.

Toward the end of fall quarter, Associate Professor of Accounting Ryan Cahalan reached out to CFPW in hopes of establishing a productive partnership for the upcoming tax season. What he found was fertile ground for ongoing collaboration.

“They have made incredible strides to grow the program, both from the standpoint of getting more volunteers and getting the word out to get more taxpayers from the community,” Cahalan said. “I cannot say enough about how amazing of a job they have done, especially Luke Love and Makayla Barcelo.”

Love, who serves as an administrator for CFPW, realized that the group was in a perfect position to provide student-led support for the initiative and tapped Barcelo, a student peer financial advisor, to help get this year’s iteration of VITA off the ground.

“VITA is a peer-to-peer experience, so having a student lead the volunteer recruitment and help lead the trainings makes sure that the student voice is always represented at the table,” Love said. “This comes from the students and goes out to the community. Having student leadership behind it helps us keep that authenticity and allows for a lot more engagement.”

Barcelo, who finished her bachelor’s degree in accounting last year and is currently pursuing her MBA, knows that leading the program this year will infuse her resume with the kind of practical experience employers are seeking.

“It always looks good on your resume to have volunteer experience, especially for someone like me who’s pursuing an MBA,” she said. “Participating in VITA, preparing taxes for the community, is an amazing way to get hands-on experience and help out my peers at the same time.”

This year, VITA will be staffed by 30 student volunteers who are looking to apply what they’re learning while helping out their peers in the process.

“Our students at Central are a huge part of the community, so we’re hoping that the fact that they’re the ones running this program will make the process of filing taxes a lot less stressful,” Love said. “It’s also free to use, which is important.”

The benefits of the program go both ways, as both community members and volunteers get to learn more about the tax system than they might otherwise have, according to Barcelo.

“As volunteers get certified, we dig deeper into the concepts behind the tax system as well as the steps to properly file them,” she said. “I think that contributes to an openness and excitement to help the community understand those things, too.”

Cahalan has witnessed firsthand the positive effect participation in VITA has had on student volunteers.

“They do nothing but gain confidence throughout the program, both in completing tax returns correctly and in working with clients,” he said. “Once the program has been completed, every student that I have ever conversed with talks about how wonderful of an experience it was for them, both in how much they were able to grow as a person and how much they were able to give back to others.”

Free one-on-one tax assistance through VITA is available to anyone making $67,000 a year or less by walk-in or appointment. Appointments, which are recommended, can be made online, over the phone at 509-963-1952, or via an email to VITA@cwu.edu.

Tax assistance sessions will be held in Black Hall 136 from 5:30-8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays from February 2 to March 12, and then on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from March 31 to April 15. Self-assisted tax return services, with volunteers standing by to answer questions, are available in the same time slots for those making $89,000 a year or less.

CFPW requests that visitors bring along photo ID, Social Security number or ITIN, income forms like W-2 and 1099, last year’s tax return, banking information, and household birthdate information.

Love relishes the opportunity to help students give back to the community in a meaningful way.

“Our students have so much to offer the community, and this is what they’re studying to do,” Love said. “We want the community to be able to access that expertise, and to feel like our university is here for them.”