College to Offer Income Tax Help

Free help with state and federal personal income tax forms will be available for the second year at Mission College’s walk-in Tax Assistance Center, school officials said.

Starting this week, tax forms will be processed between 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. each Saturday until the April 15 filing deadline. No appointments are required and the service is open to everyone, said Mission business professor Stan Chow.

The assistance program began last year with 10 business students volunteering their time to process forms for local residents. This year, 25 students have volunteered and Chow said they will process about 500 forms, double the amount from last year.

“We started the center last year to help the people in our community, many of whom lack transportation to other areas, and to give our specially trained business students the experience of filling out personal income tax forms,” Chow said.

All of the students participating in the program have completed a 40-hour course given by the Internal Revenue Service and the California Franchise Tax Board, Chow said. The Tax Assistance Center is conducted in conjunction with the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program.

Assistance with all types of personal income tax forms is available, Chow said, but business taxes are not included in the program. The Tax Assistance Center is in the south atrium of the college’s instructional building at 13356 Eldridge Ave.