ABSTRACT

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) made sweeping changes to the US tax code. These changes created significant challenges for both faculty supervisors and student volunteers who conducted Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs. Participants had to learn the rules under both the TCJA and the laws in effect prior to the enactment of the TCJA. Most provisions of the TCJA became effective on January 1, 2018, and were first used by students in preparing 2018 tax returns. This paper addresses the effects of these challenges on student learning and behavior. First, we describe how a VITA program can provide a valuable learning experience for students during a period of substantial change. Second, we discuss the challenges faced by student volunteers when dealing with low income and elderly clients during a period of change. Third, we provide a qualitative analysis of student and faculty experiences based on a sample of 15 student volunteers and 15 faculty supervisors. And fourth, we provide a qualitative analysis of the experiences encountered by tax clients from a random sample of one hundred tax clients. Based on our results, we conclude that the student volunteers, faculty supervisors and tax clients all benefitted substantially from their involvement in a VITA program during a period of change. We further conclude that communication among the parties is essential to a successful VITA program conducted in extraordinary times.