Students to help citizens pay taxes

By James Patrick Schmidt

Published Jan. 30, 2007

Thanks to MU Extension, April 15 doesn't have to be a date dreaded by students anymore.

The Missouri Taxpayer Education Initiative, a program started and supported by the extension, offers free help in filing tax returns for taxpayers with low and moderate incomes, according to a news release.

"The MoTax program in Columbia is comprised of about 40-50 students who are in tax and volunteerism classes in the Department of Personal Financial Planning," said Mark Oleson, director of the Office for Financial Success. "The IRS-trained student volunteers are at various sites around the city."

Oleson said MoTax is a statewide program, which is locally organized through MU Extension. Other groups involved are the Personal Financial Planning Department and the local sites that sponsor the free help.

The students who volunteer at the sites are enrolled in the Community Agencies and Volunteerism class in the Personal Financial Planning Department, which requires hands-on volunteer experience, MoTax Director Andrew Zumwalt said.

"Students in the Department of Financial Planning are going into the financial planning profession, and they'll be having the same client interaction in the professional environment that they do here," Zumwalt said. "The face-to-face experience is a great training tool."

Besides providing experience for financial planning students, the program is helpful for other students and members of the community.

"The program is advertised to students and the community so that they can come and get free tax help," Oleson said. "It provides free assistance to students and working families with incomes less than $40,000. Last year at the location on campus, almost 900 people came to have their return prepared and electronically filed for free."

Zumwalt said the program tries to make sure every client receives the best service possible. The final step of the process involves seeing a quality assurance specialist to check the completeness and accuracy of the tax form.

Also, each client receives educational materials on managing finances.

The program's objectives are not just to assist in filing of taxes but to also educate taxpayers about how to improve their financial management.

At the two Central Missouri Community Action center sites, the requirements are more strict and most students would not qualify, Zumwalt said.

Zumwalt said none of the locations supported by MoTax can assist non-resident aliens in filing their tax return, but they can assist resident aliens. Non-resident aliens can go to the office of Judy Todd, coordinator of the Non-U.S. Citizen Tax and Employment Office, in Jesse Hall.