Eligible students, faculty and staff at Texas A&M University-San Antonio can file their income taxes for free with help from a business administration class and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance 2-5 p.m. Feb. 21-22 in Room 143 of the Science and Technology Building.
To use the service, participants must:
- have a total household income of $60,000 or less.
- make an appointment here.
- bring identification and tax documents such as a driver’s license, Social Security card, W-2 and Form 1098-T.
Taught by Dr. Chin-Yen Alice Liu, associate professor of supply chain management, the class is BUAD 3309, Introduction to Federal Individual Income Tax.
Students will be certified as tax preparers through the IRS after they pass their certification exam Feb. 14.
“They have to get their certification before they can actually be a tax preparer on these two days,” Liu said in an interview Feb. 5.
General business senior Ismerai Gomez is one of the 15 students in Liu’s class.
“I’m excited and nervous at the same time,” Gomez said of preparing for the test. “It’s a lot of pressure; it’s a lot of information to process. There’s so many policies and whatnot. Even though it’s a very vigorous course. Dr. Liu is amazing at using real-life problems, real-life situations to help us understand and comprehend all the information.”
Liu said if her students don’t pass the exam they can serve as greeters and make sure people bring the documents needed for filing their taxes. They also can retake the test at a later date.
After the check-in process, another volunteer will prepare the tax return, followed by a QR person who will do the quality review to check that all data entry is correct. Finally, a site coordinator will file the electronic returns.
Originally from Taiwan, Liu said when she was a Ph.D. student at Texas Tech University, she wanted to file her taxes but didn’t know how. She received help from the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which offers free aid to middle- and low-income families.
Liu said she wants to do the same thing VITA did for her. She’s been volunteering for almost 14 years, and this is Liu’s fourth time hosting tax preparation assistance on campus. 
Liu and her students offered the tax clinic at A&M-San Antonio in 2018, 2020 and 2023. They also provided the services at the San Antonio Food Bank in 2017 and the San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind in 2022.
VITA helps the students gain their tax preparer certification but requires that a minimum of three volunteer hours be completed at a VITA site.
There are 20 appointments available per day, with five slots at the following times: 2 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. Each appointment takes about 30 minutes.
For more information, visit https://tamusa.campuslabs.com/engage/event/9812688.
Christi Carter, Elyssa Quesada and Joseph Ramon contributed to this story.
