{"id":30874,"date":"2018-02-02T12:57:22","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T18:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=30874"},"modified":"2018-02-02T12:57:22","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T18:57:22","slug":"students-offering-free-tax-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2018\/02\/02\/students-offering-free-tax-assistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Bemidji State University Students Offering Free Tax Assistance Through April 12"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bemidji State University business and accounting students are volunteering their time and services as a part of the Internal Revenue Service&rsquo;s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.<\/p>\n<p>Students who have completed BSU&rsquo;s Tax I course and passed IRS certification tests are offering free tax assistance each week on Wednesday and Thursday nights from 3-6 p.m. in Memorial Hall Room 250. Sessions will be held up to and including April 12, with the exception of March 14 and 15, which fall during the university&rsquo;s spring break.<\/p>\n<p>These students use their tax knowledge to provide assistance to other students, including international students with special requirements, and to low-income and elderly individuals in the area who may be uncomfortable or unfamiliar with tax law and filing requirements.<\/p>\n<p>VITA not only offers free preparation but also free e-filing for those who qualify. With e-filing and direct deposit, those who qualify typically receive their refund in 8 to 10 days. The IRS has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.irs.gov\/Individuals\/Checklist-for-Free-Tax-Return-Preparation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">web page explaining what people should bring with them to a VITA session (http:\/\/www.irs.gov\/Individuals\/Checklist-for-Free-Tax-Return-Preparation).<i title=\"External link\" class=\"bsu-icon bsu-icon-external-link small ms-1\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><b>About VITA<\/b><\/h4>\n<p>The Internal Revenue Service&rsquo;s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program offers free tax help to people who generally make $53,000 or less, persons with disabilities, the elderly and limited English-speaking taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns. IRS-certified volunteers provide free basic income tax return preparation with electronic filing to qualified individuals.<\/p>\n<h5>Contact<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Sandra Kranz, professor of accounting; (218) 755-3716, <a href=\"mailto:skranz@bemidjistate.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">skranz@bemidjistate.edu<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>LINKS<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>IRS Checklist for Free Tax Return Preparation: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/individuals\/checklist-for-free-tax-return-preparation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/individuals\/checklist-for-free-tax-return-preparation<i title=\"External link\" class=\"bsu-icon bsu-icon-external-link small ms-1\"><\/i><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24884 alignright img-fluid\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/06\/MN-State-logo-100x175.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"175\" data-bp=\"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/06\/MN-State-logo-100x175-e1539967051802.jpg\">Bemidji State University<\/b>, located in northern Minnesota&rsquo;s lake district, occupies a wooded campus along the shore of Lake Bemidji. A member of the colleges and universities of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mnscu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Minnesota State<i title=\"External link\" class=\"bsu-icon bsu-icon-external-link small ms-1\"><\/i><\/a>, Bemidji State offers more than 80 undergraduate majors and 11 graduate degrees encompassing arts, sciences and select professional programs. Bemidji State has an enrollment of more than 5,100 students and a faculty and staff of more than 550. University signature themes include environmental stewardship, civic engagement and global and multi-cultural understanding.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"smaller\" style=\"text-align: right\">2018-B-L-066<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bemidji State University business and accounting students are volunteering their time and services as a part of the Internal Revenue Service\u2019s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":27156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[872,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30875,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30874\/revisions\/30875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}