For the first time, Blackburn College students taking the AC 443 Federal Income Tax course were offered the chance to receive basic certification for helping people with their taxes. Currently, there are 16 students enrolled in the class who had the opportunity, but the students decided on their own if they had the time to volunteer to be certified. The students that are certified will now be able to assist families with an annual income of $61,000 or less with filing their tax returns. The program is called Facilitated Self Assistance (FSA), and it is an experience accounting students can put on their resumes to be more competitive when they enter the workforce.
Accounting professor Rashida Kadiani organized this opportunity for her students. “It’s hands-on work,” she said, “and I think it can give them an added confidence that they know the material that they learned in the class.” The students who receive their certification will be set up in Lumpkin Learning Commons to assist low-income families around income tax season in February. They don’t actually do the taxes for them, but they will be available for questions that fall under the basic certification guidelines. Kadiani hopes the FSA will become a traditional Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site where the students can actually prepare the taxes, but for right now the students are only consulting.
In order to be fully certified, the students had to take an ethics course. All courses are taken through a link on the IRS website and were free for the students. The ethics course taught them about confidentiality and reminded them that, no matter what they know beyond the certification, they are only allowed to advise on the things they are certified to advise on.
Junior accounting major Bradley Hill volunteered for the FSA certification. He said in an e-mail, “It’s important to give my time and efforts to benefit the community.” However, it will also help Hill. He hopes “to use this experience in order to develop skills that will be essential for a career in the financial field.”
In order to be in Tax Accounting, the students must have already taken AC 211 Financial Accounting and AC 212 Managerial Accounting, so they have not only the certification but the previous years of learning to help prepare them before taking the certification. Sixteen students took and passed the certification test.