From surprise tax bills to big refunds: Ohio State students guide community through tax season

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From surprise tax bills to big refunds: Ohio State students guide community through tax season

VITA volunteers catch errors, resolve complex cases for local filers

Students majoring in accounting at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business volunteered their time to help dozens of central Ohio residents and fellow students file taxes this season.

The student volunteers participated in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program, which provides free tax preparation services to low-income taxpayers living and working in the Columbus metropolitan area.

"We were able to help clients secure more than $500,000 in refunds this year, and we completed more than 270 tax returns," said Marissa Nelson, director of Ohio State's VITA program, senior lecturer and student experience coordinator in Fisher's Department of Accounting & Management Information Systems.

Ohio State's program is a chapter of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) national VITA and a member of the Columbus Tax Time coalition of government agencies, businesses and nonprofits, including the United Way and HandsOn Central Ohio.

The VITA program provides workstations on Ohio State's Columbus campus where student volunteers work with eligible participants to complete their tax forms and file them electronically.

The program is designed to help Ohio State students develop an appreciation for client service and interaction, build their resumes and give back to the community.

"I learned a lot with just engaging with a client. I really hadn't had that experience before," said Aaron Florman, a graduate teaching associate. "There were a few times I had to have some pretty tough conversations with people. It's never fun to tell someone that they're going to owe taxes this year."

The student volunteers educated tax filers about issues that caused them to owe money to the IRS. Elizabeth Lombardi, also a graduate teaching associate, said she assisted a food-delivery driver who was unaware that her employer doesn't withhold taxes because she's considered an independent contractor.

"She was in her 20s and had no idea to expect that [tax bill] was coming. And honestly, it hurt me for her, just sitting there having to explain it to her," Lombardi said. "I sat down with her after and I was like, 'Let's walk through how next year you can withhold taxes on your own and you can estimate how much you're going to owe so that it doesn't feel like such a burden at the end of the year.'"

The student volunteers also helped participants file back taxes.

"Some of the people who came in have been working 10, 20 years and have never filed a tax return," said Glenn Mills, a master's student. "You're filing a couple of years' prior returns for them. They're coming back for separate days so they can bring the information that you need."

The work sometimes involved resolving complex tax issues and catching errors that, in some cases, saved filers thousands of dollars.

"The one that sticks out to me is I had some lady that had lawsuit settlement income," said Nikola Rnjak, an undergraduate student. "We looked into it, and it turns out that the company that gave [her] the settlement mistreated the type of income. It was good to catch that error because she would have been taxed on that income, and she's not supposed to be."

The VITA program also helps participants find deductions they may be eligible for as a result of tax-law changes. One such change is the availability of new deductions for workers who earn tips and overtime pay for tax years 2025 through 2028.

"You're given a unique position to really help explain a lot of stuff to people," said Caden Carriger, an undergraduate student. "Using what you learned in your class, you can figure out how to strip it down to the bare essentials that they need to know to help them understand."

Matthew Morsfield, a graduate teaching associate, is one of the Ohio State students who sought help from his peers in filing his taxes. Morsfield said having access to the VITA service was convenient and saved the time and hassle of filing his taxes himself, which he did for the first time last year.

"Some of the questions, I always felt like I wasn't sure if I was answering them correctly" when he did his own taxes, Morsfield said. "It felt a lot more secure … having other students. They were very knowledgeable and trained on the tax returns for both the state and the federal. It was a lot of simple questions they asked that I was able to respond to. … They were able to explain it well."

Ohio State's VITA Program has concluded for the season. For assistance with tax filing, visit the IRS website.

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