Those on campus in need of tax assistance had to look no further than Flaum Grand Hall on Friday.

The help came from students in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management who offered income tax assistance as part of the Beta Alpha Psi Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. BAP will offer its program this Friday as well.

BAP started its own version of VITA to resolve issues with the government VITA program that Syracuse University originally offered to students, said David Ben-Hayun, a junior accounting and real estate major and the new program coordinator. In the government program, volunteers filed a student’s taxes for him or her, but the volunteer was at fault for mistakes made on the tax return, Ben-Hayun said. To remove responsibility from previous student volunteers, he said BAP established its own version of VITA.

Now, instead of filing taxes for the student, volunteers of the program go through the forms with the student and print them out. It is the student’s responsibility to review and send in the forms him or herself, Ben-Hayun said.

BAP opens the tax assistance program up to local Syracuse residents, but the service is mainly intended for and used by SU students, Ben-Hayun said.

‘We have some locals come in,’ Ben-Hayun said. ‘But we are here to help students.’

Mitchell Franklin, an assistant professor of accounting in Whitman, said BAP’s VITA program is intended to not only help students but also to teach them. Franklin works with BAP on the tax assistance program. He said taxes can be scary, even for those with very simple returns.

‘Our hope is that we can help to minimize the fear but at the same time teach our customers how to do it themselves so they can do their own next year,’ Franklin said.

BAP will offer its VITA program three more times this year: March 4, March 25 and April 1. The program will be in Flaum Grand Hall in Whitman from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on each of those dates. BAP provides the tax forms, and the program is on a first-come first-serve basis.

Rico Setyo, a senior accounting major, was one of the students who took advantage of the VITA program on Friday.

‘I used it because it’s convenient, quick and free,’ Setyo said. ‘Plus if they are doing my taxes, then I don’t have to.’

ndgallag@syr.edu

Published on March 1, 2011 at 12:00 pm