Business Student at CSUN Shares Expertise on Taxes

Many people can barely handle their own income taxes, but Cal State Northridge senior Henry Tan helped about 200 people do theirs this year.

The 20-year-old business major is a supervisor at the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program on campus while juggling seven classes. Yet much of his tax preparation experience comes through his job as a waiter and pianist for the faculty restaurant.

When not serving food or entertaining diners, Tan helped the mostly non-English speaking kitchen staff with their income taxes. Today is the Internal Revenue Service filing deadline.

Tan’s assistance saves his co-workers about $75, the fee usually charged by professional tax preparers.

“These people have families,” Tan said. “They have to support their children and buy things like diapers. I’m a college kid. I buy things like beer.”

Waiter Marco Sanchez of Van Nuys, who left Mexico 12 years ago, supports his wife and two young children on his $7 an hour salary and works at another restaurant to make ends meet.

“I don’t know how to do them [taxes], so I would have gone to an accountant,” said Sanchez, 31. “He saved me some money and I trust him. He’s a smart guy. I offered him money, but he refused. I keep telling him I have to buy him something, but he says he needs the experience anyway.”

Tan spent two hours at the restaurant each Sunday for five weeks poring over tax returns. He often asked co-workers to bring their spouses and children to answer questions and sign forms. Another co-worker translated their Spanish to English.

Tan got involved in tax preparation after he took an accounting class his junior year and realized the importance of learning the skill.

“Taxes aren’t anything to get excited about,” he said. “But if I’m going to have to file taxes for the rest of my life, why not learn how to do it myself?”

Waiter Jesse Bennett of Northridge said his co-workers have benefited from Tan’s help.

“People with kids were able to get much more money back because they didn’t have to go through one of those professional services,” said Bennett, a recent Cal State Northridge graduate. “I know he was able to find me some money.”

Tan also has helped his college friends file their taxes.

“I can really rely on him,” said business major Jaime Akiyama, 22. “He’s very talented for his age. Now I want him to teach me how to do taxes.”

In his second year with the assistance program offered through the university’s College of Business Administration and Economics, Tan volunteers at the Northridge campus site six hours a week. Help is provided to anyone with an annual gross income of less than $40,000 a year. Specialized services are offered to senior, disabled and non-English speaking clients.

The program’s 14 service centers in Los Angeles County are staffed by 225 business students, working under supervisors and IRS agents, said accounting professor and faculty advisor Cathy Jeppson. She has volunteers who speak Spanish, Korean, Farsi, Hebrew, Russian and Armenian.

“Students get to interact with people of diverse backgrounds,” Jeppson said. “They build a better understanding for the needs of the elderly. They also gain confidence and communication skills.’

Tan grew up in Ventura, but spent four years in Jakarta, Indonesia, living with his parents who run a computer school for children. Although his expertise may lie in preparing tax returns, he aspires to work in finance, he said. He is majoring in business administration with a focus on finance and marketing.

“I’m not planning to be an IRS auditor or something,” he said. “I don’t think I can look at tax forms for a while. I’m sick of them.”