Tax season has arrived and the ISU financial services urge students to take advantage of the filing process.

Tax season comes with a lot of questions from students about different tax forms, whether to or not to file for tax returns and many other questions.

Jonathan Fox, director of the Financial Counseling Clinic at Iowa State, encourages all students that have an income to file for their tax return each year.

“Even if you’re not making a ton of money, you should still file,” Fox said. “You could still be having some money withheld from you. We’ve all seen the H&R Block commercial where they talk about the billions of dollars that are withheld from people each year.”

Jeanna Nation, a counselor at the Financial Counseling Clinic, echoed Fox’s thoughts.

“If you don’t file for your tax return, you don’t get that money that has been withheld from you. It’s as simple as that,” Nation said.

Fox said that for many people getting their tax returns acts as their 13th monthly paycheck.

“For a lot of people, they count on their tax returns to help pay for Spring Break, or they count on it as a 13th paycheck,” Fox said. “But if that’s the only way you save money, come see us at the clinic.”

However, Fox said that having to pay a little back during tax season is not a bad thing, either.

“If you are getting money back to you with your tax return, it means that you have been paying too much during the year,” Fox said. “You basically gave an interest-free loan to the federal government. If you have more of that money during the course of the year, that gives you more of an opportunity to invest and build on your money. The money you get back on your tax return does not build interest.”

Nation believes that many students do not file because the forms look intimidating, or if they don’t file on their own, they have their parents do it for them. 

“Students should try it for themselves,” Nation said. “For the typical student, it would take maybe a half-an-hour to complete.”

Fox said that one way to help ease students’ way through tax season each year is to keep their taxes from past years.

“A lot of what you fill out on those forms is your name, address, social security number, and a lot of those things don’t change in the course of a year,” Fox said. “If you keep your taxes from past years, you can just transfer that stuff over.”

The Financial Counseling Clinic helps students all year with many financial issues like budgeting, credit cards, managing debt, understanding credit reports and many other things.

The cost of the Financial Counseling Clinic is built into tuition and is free for ISU students.

Fox stresses the importance of taking the time to visit the clinic for help with taxes.

“The help that we give isn’t free when you leave here,” Fox said.