Moving to the U.S. from other countries, many students face obstacles of communicating in a language different from their own at this time of the year — tax season.
University law students offer a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program to help international students, professors and researchers, such as renewable natural resources Ph.D. student Jinlong Zhang, who qualify as non-resident taxpayers, file their taxes for free.
“The VITA program is something that has been going on for a long time,” said law professor Philip Hackney. “The program started, I want to say 20 years ago, to give law students the opportunity to work with real people, with real scenarios, while also giving back to the community.”
A similar VITA program is done by the E.J. Ourso College of Business for low-income taxpayers in the area.
The program at the law center helps international students who would otherwise have to pay accounting and law firms for the service, said Blane Brown, VITA volunteer and law student.
Brown said demand around the University for individuals who know how to file international tax forms exceeds the supply since there are not many nonresident international people in Louisiana.
“Around the law school they have mock trials and other stuff for students to practice, but we don’t have a lot of real practice for tax law,” Brown said. “We take a lot of classes on income taxes, but the chance for real experience is rare. With this program, we get to talk to taxpayers, we work through problems with them and we get to sit with them, look at their W-2 forms and other tax returns.”
When students get help from law students, they must bring necessary forms and documents, including their visa and passport.
Volunteers then conduct a short interview to make sure the student is considered a nonresident taxpayer — a person in the country on a temporary visa.
The volunteer then fills out the return and a supervisor checks the work to ensure the information is precise. The taxpayer has the responsibility of filing the tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service.
Brown said the program allows international members of the University community to get their taxes done and gives experience for law students to put on their résumés, providing a layer of benefits for everyone.
“I think [the VITA program] is very good, especially for students in their first year here, who don’t know how to fill out their taxes,” Zhang said. “The volunteers give us direction. Then, we can know how to fill out these forms next year.”
The last VITA program session of the year will be held tonight in room W210 in the Paul M. Hebert Law Center from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Maria Fernanda Piña

LSU 3L senior Law Student Blane Brown helps out LSU Geology Ph. D student Emad Elfar on Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2015 with his taxes at the Law Center.