With the tax deadline less than a month away, an immersive learning class and members of a business fraternity are providing free tax preparation services to members of the Ball State community who make less than $55,000 per year.
Business students have done free tax preparation before, but it was only for international students.
"What we're doing now is trying to serve a broader section of the Ball State community. We actually help in the future to serve all of Muncie and Delaware County," accounting professor Jason Stanfield said.
Senior Accounting Major Shaina Neuenschwander did her first tax return when she was 16. In addition to helping clients, the students also help each other.
"It's really fun to be able to ask the person next to me hey, I don't understand xyz document, do you understand it? I know you had a client like this before," Neuenschwander said. "Just being able to talk to each other and have just the communication that we can have is amazing."
Stanfield says he strives to have the students do more than just prepare the returns.
"We strive to not just have the students serve as preparers, but to have them in a role also where they're kind of involved with seeing this from start to finish," Stanfield said.
For more information on the program, click here. To sign up for a time slot, click here.
