COLUMBIA, Ky. – Lindsey Wilson College accounting students are offering area residents relief this tax season, in the form of free preparation of their 2024 taxes.
The students are participating with AARP Foundation Tax-Aide, a program that provides free tax assistance to any taxpayer, with a focus on low- to moderate-income residents. Reservations are not accepted; services are provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Lindsey Wilson AARP Foundation Tax-Aide site is open from 2:30-5:30 p.m. CT every Tuesday, except March 4, through April 15 in Room 108 of the J.L. Turner Leadership Center.
This year marks the return of the Lindsey Wilson AARP Foundation Tax-Aide site after a five-year hiatus caused by the pandemic. Before COVID-19 put the Lindsey Wilson site on pause, the college served about 100 area residents a year during the two decades it offered the free service.
It feels good to have the program back on campus, according to Lindsey Wilson accounting professor Katie Curry.
“It’s good outreach for our program, and it provides good exposure for our students,” said Curry. “Students can’t get a better real-world experience, and area residents can’t get a better price to have someone help them complete their tax returns.”
Curry said that “as long as someone falls within the scope of what our students can do, we won’t turn a person away.”
“Basically, any simple tax return is going to be something we are going to be able to do,” she said.
Curry oversees the accounting students who are operating this year’s AARP Foundation Tax-Aide site at Lindsey Wilson, which is part of an “Income Tax Practice Seminar” class at the college.
“I enjoy being involved with this service because I get to see our students apply the concepts they’ve learned in class to real-world situations,” said Curry. “As a result, students become a lot more confident in their work.”
The seven Lindsey Wilson students who are part of this year’s service took “Tax I” as a prerequisite class, and they also passed a series of exams administered in January by the Internal Revenue Service.
The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program is but one of the advantages accounting students have at Lindsey Wilson. As Curry pointed out, the accounting program is structured so that Lindsey Wilson graduates will meet requirements to sit for the certified public accountant examination.
“What I like most about our program is that we have very close cohorts and a lot of interaction with them,” said Curry. “Accounting students move through our program together, and they spend a lot of time with one another, as well as their professors.”
And Lindsey Wilson accounting graduates have forged impressive paths.
“A lot of our graduates go on to graduate or professional school in accounting, law or business,” said Curry. “Because of their Lindsey Wilson experience, our students do well in reaching their career goals.”
For more information about the Lindsey Wilson AARP Foundation Tax-Aide site, contact Curry at curryk@lindsey.edu or 270-384-8063.
(Katie Curry – Lindsey Wilson College Accounting Professor)