Standing in the front of Room 3505 in the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Maisie Wartzack rushed over to any of the college students sitting in front of computers who raised their hands.
As copresident of TerpTax, Wartzack and her peers on the leadership team recruited students to volunteer, and assembled the necessary planning materials. All volunteers have to be certified by the IRS, and once training is finished, they’re able to help those who arrive with an appointment.
Whenever a volunteer has a question about a return they’re working on, they raise their hand to seek assistance.
Since 2016, TerpTax has offered free returns to low-to-mid-income residents of College Park, Maryland. They work with other students, too, and draw a significant number of international students who are sometimes overwhelmed by the process.
“For a lot of people, taxes are a really stressful experience,” Wartzack said. “So we’re just able to make that easier for people.”
While there have been changes to federal workforce, including thousands of employees laid off at the IRS, the program’s members aren’t changing their approach.
Professor Samuel Handwerger, who oversees the program, said getting questions answered from the IRS might be challenging as a result. But, because the group mostly handles returns for students and community members, they’re “fairly straightforward, so we don’t usually have to contact the IRS to get our stuff done.”
Last year, TerpTax helped with about 1,400 returns, and they’re hoping to assist with 1,500 or more this year.
There’s a learning curve for the training, Handwerger said, because there’s an additional certification process volunteers have to go through to be able to assist international students.
The students work four nights a week from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and will continue until April 15 — with the exception of spring break.
International student Zin Thar said she got involved with the program because she had questions when she had to file her own taxes. “And so I want to be able to help other people through that, because I know it can be a scary experience.”
Sometimes, it’s complicated when someone lived in two states, and “learning it from the book is really more difficult than actually doing it,” Thar said.
Freshman Kito Adeniji-Adele, meanwhile, said he’s studying accounting and wanted the hands-on experience. He said people sometimes make appointments and don’t realize they need a certain document, which requires them to return at a different time.
“It can be a confusing process, like what goes into the decision of how much I get and things like that,” he said. “It can frustrate some people.”
While the program helps community members, Handwerger said it creates a real-world environment for the students involved. And, often, there’s a common question every tax season.
“Why do I have to pay taxes?” Handwerger said many ask. “That’s been my career, it’s here as well. It doesn’t change.”
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