After 200 Returns He’s Taxed Out

While many people barely can handle their own income taxes, Cal State Northridge senior Henry Tan has pored over 200 returns this year.

The 20-year-old business major works as a supervisor at the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program on campus while juggling seven classes; yet, much of his tax preparation experience has come through his job as a waiter and pianist at the faculty restaurant.

When not serving food or entertaining diners, Tan often could be found this winter sitting on a bar stool helping the mostly non-English-speaking kitchen staff with their income taxes ahead of today’s filing deadline.

Tan saved his co-workers about $75 each, the fee typically charged by tax preparers for simple returns.

“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, who left Mexico 12 years ago and lives in Van Nuys, 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,” Sanchez, 31, said. “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 preparing his co-workers’ income taxes. He often asked them to bring their spouses and children to answer questions and sign forms. Another co-worker translated their Spanish to English.

Tan got into the tax preparation business after taking an accounting class his junior year and realizing how important a skill it was.

“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.”

Besides kitchen staffers, Tan has helped his college friends file 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 VITA/Low Income Tax Payer program, Tan volunteers at the Cal State Northridge site six hours a week.

The program has 14 sites in Los Angeles County staffed by 225 students, said faculty advisor Cathy Jeppson, an accounting professor. 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 the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, living with his parents, who run a computer school for children. Although his expertise may lie in 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.”