As college students, we are approaching the time in our lives where self-sufficiency from our parents or guardians is difficult to avoid. When many students move off for college, they tend to get a job for some sort of income. Along with a job comes responsibilities such as filing taxes. 

Filing taxes is an intimidating task for many, especially for first-timers. Because it is tax season and many people are filing for the first time, we talked to Gloria Stuat in Georgia Southern’s accounting department for some tips on how to ease the stress of tax season.

GS recently started a volunteer income tax assistance program for not only students but members of the Bulloch County community as well. This program is partnered with the IRS and all of the volunteers are actually certified under the national Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. 

This is a volunteer group that does free tax representation for community members. Taxpayers can drop off their tax information and the group prepares the tax returns in the College of Business. It is a free service and there is about a one week turn around. 

Stuart said they are accepting drop-offs for this tax season this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday. The link to this free service is https://parker.georgiasouthern.edu/vita/

If you are wanting to do your taxes yourself, Stuart says the first thing to do is figure out whether you are being claimed as a dependent by your parents or guardians. This will play a big role in how you file your taxes. 

The next thing Stuart recommends is keeping a folder all year long to hold all of your documents that could potentially affect your taxes. It may be too late to do it for this tax season, but for next tax season. 

Stuart said any documents having to do with freelance work such as charging lime scooters or doing Doordash or Uber should go into that folder. “That way when tax time comes, you won’t have to dig for that information, it will all be in that folder” she said. 

As a student filing taxes, most qualify for the IRS FreeFile program. This is a free tax preparation software for people who make under $72,000 a year. 

“If you have a choice, always e-file and direct deposit. This will ensure you get your return within 21 days,” Stuart said. 

The freefile program offers the option for direct deposit. Stuart says this is the quickest, easiest way to do your taxes. 

The link to this service is https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/