It is no surprise that the tax season can be taxing, especially for students who have never had to do their own taxes before. However, The Ivy College of Business provides a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program for students and members of the community to help alleviate this stress.

According to Chris Moon, an associate teaching professor, the program provides help to people with a household income of $67,000 or less.

“A lot of our students fit into that,” Moon said.

Moon mentioned that, unlike many other places, they help foreign students who are non-residents file as well.

“We do a ton of non-resident returns,” Moon said. “So that’s something that I want people to know is available to them here at Gerdin clinic.”

Moon recommended preparing for your appointment with the following documents.

“They need to gather all of their tax documents, any W-2s, 1099s, any other information that they receive that they think is applicable to their tax return,” Moon said. “They need to make sure that they have their government-issued photo ID and a social security card so we can verify that information and also last year’s tax return.”

Moon said last year they filed around 1,600 tax returns in the Story County Community and in Boone. 

For students with scholarships applied to their tuition, Moon said students can pull those tax forms up on their Workday accounts. 

“You might have to pay taxes on some of the scholarships you received and you might get a credit for some of the tuition that you’ve paid,” Moon said. “So that is one of the tax documents that we look at.”

Moon said they are open Monday through Thursday from 5 p.m. until whenever their appointments finish for the day, with about 17 students working per night. 

Assistance from VITA is provided Feb. 10 through April 10.

For more information, visit this website and to schedule an appointment with VITA, visit this website.