March, 2011 - University of the Incarnate Word

March 2011The federal VITA program became a VITAmin at theUniversity of the Incarnate Word when organizationalleadership doctoral student Robin Guerrero becameinvolved.His Volunteer Income Tax Assistance ModifiedInstructional Network was created to ensure volunteershelping low-income taxpayers with their tax returnswere better-trained. Ultimately, he hopes for 50,000volunteers to use the software he helped to develop withtwo accounting professors: Theresa Tiggeman and Dr.Tracie Edmond.“If this project actually turns out to work and otherpeople use it in other fields; if we find the cheap wayto do something and we can share that with somebody,we’re not going to keep it a secret,” Guerrero said. “Evenif this program goes and comes and dies we’re still goingto be here because that’s what we’ve given our heartand soul to.”Guerrero’s survey of some clients who qualify forVITA assistance shows their refunds for child tax creditsMISSIONpage www.uiwlogos.org5VITAmin seeks to improve help for tax-return assistanceBy Rachel CywinskiLOGOS STAFF WRITERand earned income credits make up 20 to 25percent of their annual income.”People who go to for-profit companies“get those refund anticipation loans, and theykeep half the money,” Guerrero said. “Thoseindividuals who get this money deserve all ofit. It shouldn’t be going for these for-profitcompanies.”VITA tax preparers Art Garza and HectorFlores, both graduate accounting studentsfrom San Antonio, are taking advantage ofthe opportunity to obtain course credit for thespring semester by preparing tax returns onSaturdays in the basement of the AdministrationBuilding.“It’s a great experience to work with people,”Flores said. “You can put it on your resume.I’m Spanish-speaking, so it’s a little easier forme to help out throughout the room. You haveto interview people. I will probably help outin this location again. It’s a great program tohelp low-income families.It helps fulfill the missionof the university, usingour major to help otherpeople. It’s not just communityservice but we learnsomething from it. It makesme more in-tune with thecommunity. It gives methe option to explore taxaccounting before makinga career choice.”Garza said, “I need experienceand need to learninterpersonal people skills;plus it’s a good cause. A lotof people who come heredon’t want to pay (forprofitcompanies) thosefees or they can’t afford to.You just want to be withan organization you cantrust. The people are a lotof fun, too. Everyone getsornery with each other; it’sa great organization. I willdefinitely volunteer hereafter graduation. I didn’tknow VITA existed beforethis course. Everyone needstheir taxes. We’re servingthe employees here as wellas the community.”Long lines of peoplewaiting for hours for theVITA program to openits doors each Saturdayin early spring attest tothe popularity of this programamong return visitors.Waiters listed avoidingtax preparer fees, and gettingrefunds they had notknown they were entitled toin previous years, as reasonsto return.The VITAmin softwaretraining was pilotedlast Oct. 18 by the Cityof San Antonio with 28individuals and 100 users.Rachel Cywinski/LOGOS STAFFGraduate accounting students Hector Flores (front) and Art Garza earn course creditfor completing tax returns during the weekly Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sessiontaking place on a Saturday morning in the basement of the Administration Building. Lowincomefamilies use the service provided annually during tax season at the university.Guerrero’s vision has clashed with the set InternalRevenue Service policies at times. He said he wants totransform the mandatory annual training for volunteersinto something more interesting, more convenient, morechallenging and resulting in volunteers being able toadapt to scenarios with which they are confronted.The 26 lessons in the VITAmin program range from15 to 35 minutes, and allow users to complete the mandatorytraining sessions on their own timetables. Guerrero’slong-term plan includes growing the VITAminsoftware program and managing it nationwide with hisown staff. He wants to upgrade the training software byadding podcasts and other interests, develop a bilingualEnglish/Spanish version, and hopes to develop an InternalRevenue Service application. All of these rely onpending legislation.Guerrero said of his relationship with Edmond andTiggeman, “For one individual to have taken on sucha big task, it would have been impossible. When onegets down, we’re here to motivate each other. This isour dream.”Together, they hired software developers but foundtheir dream was too expensive. Guerrero said, “Ourdream was for us to simply be developers. We were goingto hire someone to be the voice. Actually we usedDr. Edmond’s voice. We thought five years ago we can’tcontribute anything we don’t know. We don’t have anymoney. We can only be here on Saturdays. We thought:‘What can we do to strengthen the program?’ Developerswanted to develop for free but keep the rights tothe software so they could profit when it expands inthe future.”Instead, Guerrero, Tiggeman and Edmond struggledto finance the software development themselves andnow own 100 percent of the rights to the program theypublished. They have presented their program at conferences.The City of San Antonio initially funded the pilotprogram. Now the trio is looking for investors.Guerrero said, “We’re not looking for profit oranything; we just want someone to split the bill.” Theestimate to finish building the sound system into thesoftware is $78,000-$150,000.Although Guerrero now hopes to use pretest andposttest data for every level and group for his dissertationresearch, he did not develop the program for hisdegree. Instead, after years of running his own corporatetax consulting firm and 17 years of managing the VITAprogram at UIW, he realized he could get another degreewith the information that he was already developing.“That’s kind of how I got into the Ph.D. program aswell,” Guerrero said. “I might as well take advantage ofthe opportunity I have with this information.”