Local community members have realized increased savings and income thanks to the tax-preparation assistance provided by accounting students and faculty in Barry University’s Andreas School of Business.
Individuals and families will receive refunds from the IRS totaling over $110,000 this year. They have saved nearly $24,000 by taking advantage of the free tax-preparation service provided at the Barry’s Miami Shores site for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
“Based on our 94 e-files for the 2017 tax year, individuals and families will receive refunds totaling $110,366,” said Dr. Kevin Kemerer, associate professor of accounting and VITA site coordinator.
The VITA program offers free tax assistance to people who generally make $54,000 or less, as well as persons with disabilities and taxpayers who speak limited English. IRS-certified volunteers provide basic income tax return preparation with electronic filing to qualified individuals.
Kemerer said 24 of the 94 taxpayers who qualified for earned income-tax credit (EIC), a tax reduction and a wage supplement, would receive EIC refunds of $28,309. Earlier this semester, the trained volunteers prepared a total of 119 tax returns, including 14 returns on paper.
The preparation of 119 returns, Kemerer said, resulted in estimated savings of $23,800 to filers from the local community who used the VITA program.
Through his service-learning course on federal income tax, Kemerer supervised students as they provided tax-preparation service to low- and moderate-income members of the community.
The participating students were John Bridier, Rowhann S. David, Stephanie D. Encarnacion, Karina Hinojosa, Treshania M. Hutton, Pedro E. Marrero, Juan J. Ojeda, Danialee Ortega, Isis-Candace R. Roberts, and Ricardo Burford. This was Burford’s second year as a volunteer.
Barry alumna Nair Manuel also lent a hand with the tax preparation. This was her third year as a volunteer.
Kemerer, who has served for five years as a site coordinator for the IRS-sponsored program, gave a report of the achievements at the VITA site during the final meeting of his accounting class on May 3.
On hand to acknowledge the work of the volunteers were Gina Ruiz-Fernandez, IRS senior tax consultant; Dr. Orlando Barreto, interim dean of the School of Business; and Dr. Glenn Bowen, executive director of Barry’s Center for Community Service Initiatives.
Ruiz-Fernandez expressed appreciation to Kemerer and his students for their service and accomplishments at the VITA site over a five-year period. She said they were supporting the work of the Miami-Dade VITA Coalition and the IRS in meeting its stakeholder partnerships, education, and communication (SPEC) mission.
Ruiz-Fernandez also presented a certificate of appreciation to the School of Business “in recognition and appreciation of outstanding partnering contributions made in achieving the SPEC mission.”