Chaminade University (Honolulu,
HI)
Income
Tax Preparation
Summary
Accounting and business students have assisted the elderly, homeless,
and working-poor communities for over 20 years by providing free income
tax preparation and personal budget planning assistance. The current partnership
with Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii began in 1998. In these service-based
experiential learning settings, students develop technical competencies
and gain better understanding of diversity and government policy that
affects those who are poor or do not have a mastery of the English language.
The Practice
Currently tax clinics are conducted each tax season at eight different
homeless transition shelters, two domestic violence shelters, and the
only emergency homeless shelter on the island of Oahu. Partnerships with
the community include for-profit, nonprofit and governmental sectors.
The main partner since 1998 is Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii’s
homeless shelter legal clinic program and nonprofit program.
Student tax aides are usually accounting and business management majors
who enroll in tax classes. Preparation is both from the special tax training
classes that occur before or at the very start of the spring semester.
Other students are volunteers who have participated in prior years. Students
are tested for competency by the professor and the IRS. Intentional learning
outcomes include technical skill development in doing a tax return, interviewing
skills, research of tax law issues, collaborative working with other professionals,
computer tax software application, and gaining a better understanding
of diversity and government policy that affects those who are poor or
who do not have a mastery of the English language.
The clinics are designed so that those acquiring services through the
student tax assistance learn how to do their own taxes next year and are
able to assist others to do something at some later time. The persons
assisted by the students become teachers of the students. They teach the
students their own kinds of wisdom, humility, and perseverance. And they
teach the staff and students that they live only too close to the reality
of their lives and but for a few breaks could be there as well.
Effectiveness
The main community partner conducts both needs assessments and administers
quality assurance surveys to all acquirers of these services and consistently
reports a high level of satisfaction. Records for the past six years indicate
that this project has facilitated and aided individuals and families to
receive $500,000 in otherwise non-claimed refunds. Over the lifetime of
this collaborative work, over $2,000,000 has been recovered for eligible
individuals and families.
Student tax aide work is evaluated by the clients, with there being no
difference in satisfaction between student volunteers and the CPA and
tax attorneys that are also providing these services.
Students report that significant learning and social awareness has occurred.
Student perspectives have been validated by their reflections, both those
assigned as a part of the class and reflections publicly documented by
the news media. Many students return after graduation to assist. Another
indicator of success is the number of students who have found employment
with CPA firms soon after graduation.
Both the direct community application of the scholarship and academic
presentations of this work by the principal faculty member have played
a role in his promotions to full professor and acquiring tenure.
Resources
Click
here for the article “Student tax assistants find rewards go
beyond refunds.”
Click here for information
on Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii.
Visit the Chaminade website
for information on Chaminade service-learning projects.
Contact Information
Wayne M. Tanna, Esq., JD,LL.M.
Accounting Professor
Chaminade University of Honolulu
Phone: 808-739-4606
wtanna@chaminade.edu
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Effective
Practices Exchange
