EITC Article in VocalPoint Chamber Newsletter April 2015
FINAL CAPSTONE PROJECT
1. Volunteer Tax Assistance Program
Restructuring with Supply Chain Methods
Guoxin Guan
Emily Holm
SeongJong Hong
Connor Johnson
Christina Shermoen
May 11, 2016
2. 2
Executive Summary
Implementation Overview
v Set up a leadership team before the summer begins
v Improve fellowship reporting process with the help of Internal Audit at the University of Minnesota
v Delegate the Assistant Directors and VP of Training to create an in-depth training plan for next fall
semester during the summer months
v Work with the VP of IT to make Intake sheet information available on the VTAP website
The main risk in implementing our recommendation: Confidentiality
Risk Mitigation Plan
v Only those who absolutely need the passwords for specific accounts will be granted access
v The executive board will be required to complete one additional 30-minute confidentiality assessment
on the IRS website
v A contract will be created to outline the expectations of handling confidential information and
consequences if someone decides to break confidentiality
Analysis
This recommendation was constructed after performing an in-depth competitive analysis of VTAP (Appendix
6: Porter’s 5 Forces). In this analysis, we found a few key takeaways: better technology is creating more
advanced tax software for people to use at home which is leading to the changing client demographics and the
IRS has a lot of power over the VITA site.
Recommendation: Process Improvement & Restructure Leadership
We recommend to VTAP to restructure its leadership hierarchy to improve logistics, increase its capacity
through process improvements, and train in a way to reflect the changing client demographics. These
recommendations will consist of creating a new executive board, improving screening questionnaires,
fellowship reporting and intake sheets, and implementing a solid training in the fall semester to reflect the new
client base VTAP sees.
3. 3
Introduction
The Volunteer Tax Assistance Program (VTAP) is a student run VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) Site
located at the University of Minnesota. VTAP works with student volunteers to offer free tax assistance and filing to
low to moderate-income individuals. Recently VTAP went through tremendous change. It became its own Registered
Student Organization (RSO), moved to a new office, and expanded its capacity. Growing demand sparked these
changes. In just the past three years, VTAP has tripled the amount of tax returns it processes. However, this new
implementation has revealed many problems, and VTAP has struggled to stay organized. To help VTAP reach the
next level, it needs quality and process improvements for the new leadership team to implement next season.
Our Project Scope:
As consultants, VTAP has given us full access into all of their resources to make recommendations. Aside from
VTAP specific information, we will gather information from the University of Minnesota’s Tax Department
regarding their process of reporting graduate income, specifically fellowships and assistantships.
The scope of this project consists of the Volunteer Tax Assistance Program’s resident site. This includes about 95
volunteers who helped over 1,700 clients this year. We are excluding VTAP’s nonresident site in order to simplify
the project. The scope will also include the University of Minnesota’s Tax Department to help reform reporting
graduate income.
The implementation of our recommendations will go into effect to change next year’s processes.
Our Specific Project Objectives Include:
Increase the amount of
returns generated each
year by 20%
(Appendix 8: VTAP’s Growth)
Restructure the leadership
team to facilitate more
communication and a
more efficient workflow
Reform the University’s
way of reporting graduate
income to make it easier for
graduate students to do their
own taxes
Increase office efficiency
by reducing a client’s time
by an average of 5 minutes
(Appendix 9: Client Process Flow)
4. 4
Assessment of Current Situation
VTAP was founded by the Minnesota Student Association CFO in 2006 on the basis of a project. The Minnesota
Student Association (MSA) is the undergraduate student government at the University of Minnesota. During the
founding year of VTAP, the program only served about 10 clients. However, since then it has grown exponentially
because even though it was small in 2006, it was founded upon strong roots. Since the beginning, VTAP was a VITA
Site registered through the IRS. This gave the program the legitimacy and the great contacts within the IRS it needed
to grow the program.
Since it was founded, VTAP has always been a part of MSA. However, this past year VTAP split its ties with MSA
and became an RSO (Registered Student Organization). This split gave VTAP two key benefits: more control and
flexibility.
After performing an in-depth competitive analysis of VTAP (Appendix 6: Porter’s 5 Forces), we found two key
takeaways: better technology is creating more advanced tax software for people to use at home which is leading to
the changing client demographics and the IRS has a lot of power over the VITA site.
More Advanced Tax Software is a Competitor
As technology is developing, tax software is becoming easier to use and much less expensive. Options like
TurboTax, H&R Block Online, and MyFreeTaxes allow clients to take control of their taxes, which people like.
However, these options often do have one catch: if the return is not simple, the software charges the client on a basis
of how complicated the return is. These improved online tax softwares have changed VTAP’s client base
dramatically.
Client Demographics Are Changing
In the early days of VTAP, the client base was strictly students, mostly undergraduates who were filing as
dependents. Eventually staff and faculty started to come as well. However, now about 30% of VTAP’s client base
are graduate students and about 50% are community members with no affiliation to the University of Minnesota
(Appendix 11: VTAP Demographics). After some research, these demographics are changing for two reasons:
better tax preparation technology and increased awareness within the entire community.
VITA sites are the only free in-person tax services in the United States. Therefore, VTAP clients are usually in
one of three of these categories:
1. Clients who want their taxes done by an actual person for free
2. Clients who will never touch their own taxes for fear of messing them up
3. Clients who turn to the online tax softwares and then realize their return is too complicated for the free
version of the software
* all clients who come to VTAP also fit some tax guidelines set by the IRS (Appendix 10: Out of Scope for VTAP)
5. 5
The second reason the demographic is changing is because of increased awareness to the site. There has been a
10% increase in VITA sites in Minneapolis, which means more people are hearing about the IRS program (Free
Tax Preparation Sites). At first, only undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota knew about VTAP;
however, now the site information is located on the IRS website and word has spread throughout the community.
Any community member can go online and search for a VITA site near them, and now that VTAP is an option,
there are more of these community members visiting the Coffman site.
This change has been quite a shock to the system, as VTAP now sees much more complicated returns, which take
longer than returns VTAP has seen in previous years, resulting in backups in the office.
IRS has Extreme Power
The biggest force affecting VTAP is the IRS. Because VTAP is a VITA site that is controlled by the IRS, VTAP
must conform to IRS regulations. Obviously, all of the returns prepared at the site are done in accordance of IRS
rules and regulations. But for the VTAP site in particular, it has to adhere to additional rules. These include but are
not limited to: certain signage in the office, specific rules and confidentiality taught in training, rejected return rates,
adherence to “IRS Shopped Visits,” and advertisements. Based on these factors, the IRS ultimately decides if the site
has met these standards and can continue operating.
These three takeaways are key to understand in determining how VTAP can expand as a program and
become more efficient.
6. 6
Analysis
After careful analysis of the program itself, we have found a few key strengths and weaknesses that we must focus on
and understand in order to give solid recommendations for improvements.
VTAP Successes: Growth, Recruitment, Fill Rates, Registered Student Organization
Growth. VTAP expanded capacity in 2016 by increasing the hours of the site from 10:00AM-4:00PM
Monday – Saturday to 9:00AM-4:00PM Monday – Saturday. VTAP also increased the amount of clients per
hour from four to five by moving its office from Hanson Hall Undergraduate Lounge to Coffman Memorial
Union Room 103A. To see the results of this capacity increase, see Appendix 8: VTAP’s Growth.
Recruitment. In 2016, VTAP recruited, trained, and IRS certified 20% more volunteers than any other year.
This recruitment was satisfactory in managing the current client capacity.
Fill Rates. Through just word of mouth and posts in different newsletters, VTAP was fully booked five
weeks out, even with its newly expanded capacity.
Registered Student Organization. VTAP split from MSA to become a Registered Student Organization
(RSO) to allow for more independence.
VTAP Problem Areas: Logistics, Technology, Fellowships, Capacity
Logistics. Between searching for a location for a new site, opening a group bank account, re-setting up a phone plan,
ordering tax documents, and being in line with all IRS regulations, there are many small details to keep track of and
no process to keep track of it. Many problems have occurred because of this including but not limited to: misaligned
information on the website, scattered scheduling, and unorganized logistics functions. These problems have stemmed
through not leveraging the leadership team to its full capacity (Appendix 12: VTAP’s Current Leadership Hierarchy).
The site coordinators are capable of much more and are willing to be involved; however, because of the setup of the
leadership structure, they are not given the resources and are not trained in properly to take control. Therefore, all the
duties are left to the directors.
Technology. Another challenge is the technology. The appointment software is very touchy and difficult to use, the
tax software caused VTAP to worry about unnecessary issues the first week, the website is out of date, and the
survey clients take on the website to make an appointment is complicated.
Fellowships. Fellowships and assistantships are a problem at the University every year simply because the tax
department does not know the correct way to report them, causing many confused graduate students. These confused
graduate students come to the site and doing their taxes is often a nightmare because not one case is the same. If this
process were to be more streamlined, it would save an average 20 minutes per return.
Capacity. After VTAP expanded the capacity this year, we have found that VTAP’s largest bottleneck is the amount
of tax preparers and quality reviewers it has. Even with VTAP’s best recruiting efforts, in future years, the amount of
students interested in doing people’s taxes for free is not predicted to increase substantially.
7. 7
Recommendation: Process Improvement & Restructure Leadership
Our recommendation consists of three actions. They are as follows:
1. Restructure Leadership Hierarchy to Improve Logistics
When the new leadership takes office, we will recommend that the leadership is set up different. Currently there are 2
directors, 3 IT team members, 15 site coordinators, 15 quality reviewers, and about 70 tax preparers. In order to
accomplish more, an executive board needs to be created out of the site coordinators. Each person will be assigned a
specific role with duties and standards on how things need to be done. These duties will be highlighted in a handbook
in which VTAP’s new director will create. This executive board will hopefully eliminate many details from being
missed and spread the work upon ten people instead of two. It will also facilitate more efficient operations outside the
office because several tasks can be worked on at the same time by multiple people. The proposed roles are explained
in detail in Appendix #2: VTAP’s New Executive Board.
Throughout the year, we recommend bi-weekly or monthly meetings between this Executive Board and the directors
to ensure that duties are carried out as planned and operations are running smoothly.
2. Increase Capacity through Process Improvements
As mentioned above, increasing the number of volunteers and consequently the number of clients VTAP has
receiving help at one time is likely not going to be able to increase in the next few years because VTAP has maxed
out the amount of volunteers it can recruit. Office hours will not be able to expand either due to building restrictions.
These variables are VTAP’s bottlenecks in terms of capacity. Therefore, after analyzing VTAP’s Process flow
(Appendix 9: Client Process Flow), we recommend four creative solutions to increase capacity: eliminate dead time,
reform fellowship reporting, implement intake sheet pre screen, and implement more leadership meetings. These are
explained thoroughly in Appendix 16: Recommendation #2 Detail.
3. Train in a way to Educate around New Client Demographics
With VTAP’s client demographics changing, we have realized two changes in particular to the returns that VTAP
does: VTAP now receives many clients needing to report treaty benefits and fellowships. Few volunteers are trained
in these topics for two reasons. First, in the past there were not many return like these so having only a few people
trained on them was not an issue. Second, these are considered more difficult so we wanted to ensure the people
doing them really knew what to do. However, with the increased frequency of these returns, VTAP needs to focus its
training on these two specific types of returns. VTAP must be responsive to demand and change its training as the
client base changes. Costs and benefits of this recommendation are in Appendix 14: Costs and Benefits of Extra
Training.
8. 8
Implementation Plan
Set Up Leadership Team
The first step to implementing the recommendations is to ensure that the executive team is set up and ready to go by
the time summer hits. Each person on the team must know what each of their duties are and the resources that they
need to accomplish these duties. This process will begin with a transitional meeting between the current directors and
the new directors (Appendix 9: Transitional Leadership Meeting Agenda). This meeting will set the precedent and
expectations for the upcoming year. After this meeting, interviews will be held for the new executive board and a
meeting with the board will take place the following week. At this meeting, at timeline will be set up for the entire
next year with dates set for duties to be completed by. Executive board meetings will be continued once a month for
the rest of the year. At this time the new director will conduct all future meetings and the past directors’ duties will be
over.
Improve Fellowship Reporting Process
Previous directors have tried to talk to the Tax Department about their fellowship reporting in the past. However, no
success has come of this. So instead, we recommended VTAP to go directly to the IRS (Appendix #1: Fellowship
Email) and ask for resources. Using these resources, VTAP was able to set up a meeting with internal audit at the
University. Unfortunately, they did not get a meeting until May 20, after the school year is over. This portion of the
project is still in process and the outcome will come after the project due date. There is a possibility that the
university will not be open to changing their reporting system. To mitigate the risk and persuade the tax department
and fully explain why the process needs to be changed, VTAP should go to the meeting prepared. VTAP should go to
the meeting with several documents and talking points, listed in Appendix 15: Documents and Talking Points for
Meeting with University of Minnesota Tax Department.
Make a Training Plan
The new VP of Training will work closely with the Assistant Directors over the summer to come up with a training
plan for the fall semester. To see what changes will be made, see Appendix 13: Addition’s to VTAP’s Training.
Intake Sheets
One bottleneck we found when analyzing the business was the amount of time it takes for clients to fill out the intake
sheets. These IRS required sheets provide an overview of basic client information and tax forms for the tax preparers
to review. On average, it takes nine minutes for someone to fill out the form. In order to combat this issue, there are
two options: ask clients to print off the form online before their appointment and fill it out or come fifteen minutes
early to their appointment. This can be implemented easily by just changing up the information on the website for the
upcoming tax season.
9. 9
Risks
These recommendations do pose two risks: confidentiality concerns and more responsibility for each volunteer. With
the new executive board, the roles and duties will be spread out between ten people instead of two. This means that
more than two people will have to have access to the bank account information, admin tax account information, and
email login in order for the executive board to fulfill their duties successfully. This security risk will be mitigated
with three tactics:
1. Only those who absolutely need the passwords for specific accounts will be granted access
2. The executive board will be required to complete one additional 30-minute confidentiality assessment on the IRS
website
3. A contract will be created to outline the expectations of handling confidential information and consequences if someone
decides to break confidentiality
Each volunteer will also be responsible for more information. Even volunteers in the first year of the program will be
learning more advanced tax preparation. To mitigate this risk several steps will be taken including: more training will
be given before the season starts on these topics, each return will be quality reviewed to ensure correct reporting, and the
process will be more streamlined after the meeting with the university, hopefully making these returns easier to report. The
recommendations will require little cost to implement. See Appendix 14: Costs and Benefits of Extra Training for a
breakdown of additional costs. VTAP also has a partial budget left over from the 2015 season and we do not foresee
the extra costs causing a problem to the success of the implementation. Despite the low costs, there will need to be a
large amount of time dedicated to the recommendations.
Conclusion
We provided VTAP recommendations to restructure its leadership hierarchy to improve logistics by creating a new
executive board and process improvements including: screening questionnaire, fellowships, intake sheets, and
training based on new client demographics. We believe this will accomplish our project objectives of: increasing the
amount of returns generated each year by 20%, restructuring the leadership team to facilitate more communication
and a more efficient workflow, reforming the University’s way of reporting graduate income to make it easier for
graduate students to do their own taxes, and increasing the efficiency of completing all returns by reducing a client’s
time in the office by an average of 5 minutes. This will hopefully lead a successful 2017 tax season and set the
foundation for successful tax preparation for years to come.
11. 11
Appendix #2: VTAP’s New Executive Board
Director
§ All communication with the IRS will be done by
the Director. This includes but is not limited to:
• Communication with Mary K Jones
• Order all tax documents in September
§ Communication with Jason Hancock, MSA,
BOG, Mike Dixon, Angela Murray
§ Reservation of Room Spaces (Astra, BOG,
Jason Hancock)
• Resident – Coffman
• Nonresident – West Bank
• Saturday Site
§ Email communication
§ Oversee the Executive Board
§ Hold monthly Executive Board meetings
§ Attend monthly Carlson President’s meetings
Assistant Director(s)
§ Ensure all e-files are being taken care of
• Submission of all active returns
• State e-files are being created
§ Upkeep the office space
• Make sure all documents are in room
(residency, codes, treaty guidelines, etc.)
§ Anything the Director needs to be done
Nonresident Director(s)
§ Responsible for everything nonresident site
§ Contact with ISSS (Duane Rohvit, UMN)
§ Contact with Duane Pulford, Paul Cullen, and
Marea Clark
VP of Finance
§ Responsible for gathering sponsors and securing
funding
• Apply for Student Service Fees
• Contact with MSA & GAPSA
• Communication with Sponsors
§ Creating and updating the budget
• Keeping record of all receipts
• Approving Executive Board spending
§ Prepare for a possible Audit (ever 3 years)
§ Responsible for SUA current RSO standing
• This must be renewed each year
VP of Technology
§ TaxWise setup at the beginning of the year
• Creating users and assigning roles
• Create Master Template
§ TaxWise glitches throughout the year
§ Update and maintenance of website
§ Switching the website from the Fall volunteers
to Spring clients
§ Updating Qualtrics survey on website
§ Set up and maintain Appointy for resident and
nonresident site
§ Set up a new domain for email (resident &
nonresident)
VP of Human Resources
§ Responsible for communication between all
volunteers to make sure information is clearly
available
§ Create and maintain a master list of all
volunteers, positions, contact information, and
certifications passed
§ Create the master schedule
§ Compile all signed certifications
§ In charge of email with the Director
§ Recruitment in the Fall Semester
• Attend career fairs
• Talk in classrooms
• Accept applications
• Set up and conduct interviews
VP of Marketing
§ Run the FB and LinkedIn Pages
§ Create and distribute VTAP promotional flyers
§ Responsible for promotion of VTAP in BSB
Weekly, Undergrad Update, IRS website, and
Coffman TV screens
§ Maintain our VTAP logo
§ Annual VTAP social event
§ Order T-Shirts (or Polo’s)/Nametags/Pens
VP of Rejected Returns
§ Take care of all rejected returns
VP of Training
§ Responsible for training sessions in the fall
semester
§ Set which certifications must be completed by
each volunteer and communicate this
13. 13
Appendix 3: Project Team
Guoxin Guan
Project Manager
Guoxin is a senior in Carlson School of Management, double major in Management Information
System & Supply Chain Operation Management. He came from NanJing, China, and like traveling to
different places. Guoxin will bring an outside perspective to the current VTAP situation.
Emily Holm
VTAP Director
Originally from South Dakota, Emily is a senior studying Supply Chain and Operations at the Carlson
School of Management. She is the Director of the Volunteer Tax Assistance Program. Emily will bring
and inside perspective to the current VTAP situation.
SeongJong Hong
Project Manager
SeongJong Hong is a senior at the Carlson School of Management majoring in Supply Chain and
Operation Management. He is also a president of Korean Student Organization called CIS. Aside from
school, SJ loves watching movies and dramas, working out, and reading interior magazine. SJ will
bring an outside perspective to the current VTAP situation.
Connor Johnson
Project Manager
Connor is a senior studying Supply Chain and Operations Management with a minor in MIS. He serves
as the Director of Technology for the Supply Chain and Operations Club and also has held many
positions within his fraternity. Connor enjoys attending sporting event and concerts, along with being
active and trying new things with friends. Connor will bring an outside perspective to the current VTAP
situation.
Christina Shermoen
VTAP Director
Christina is a senior studying supply chain and operations management. She is the Director of the
Volunteer Tax Assistance Program. She likes to travel and recently studied abroad in Spain. Christina
will bring and inside perspective to the current VTAP situation.
14. 14
Appendix 4: Work Breakdown Structure
Restructure
VTAP
Initiation
Evaluation of
Problems
Gather
Information
Pitch Project
Proposal
Planning
Preliminary
Scope Statement
Determine
Project Team
Project Team
Kickoff Meeting
Develop Project
Plan
Submit Project
Plan
Project Plan
Approved
Execution
Project Kickoff
Meeting
Create New
Leadership Roles
Implement Roles
- Summer
Work with Tax
Department
Improve our
Technology
Train Volunteers
Control
Monthly
Executive
Meetings
Project Status
Meeting
Make Necessary
Changes
Closeout
Lessons Learned
Recommendation
for Next Year
Leadership
15. 15
Appendix 5: Plan of Work
Preliminary Schedule:
Overall Project Timeline: Date Begin: Date End:
Develop Executive Board Roles and Responsibilities 02/25/2016 03/01/2016
Work with UMN Tax Department 02/29/2016 03/14/2016
Improve VTAP’s Appointment System 06/01/2016 12/01/2016
Efficiently Train Volunteers 10/01/2016 11/31/2016
Individual Timeline for Each Goal: Timeframe:
Develop Executive Board Roles and Responsibilities 2 days
Get Approval of Roles & Responsibilities 1 week
Appoint New Leadership 1 week
Train in New Leadership 4 weeks
Work with UMN Tax Department 2 weeks
Allow for 1 year for changes to be implemented 1 year
Improve VTAP’s Appointment System 6 months
Test Appointy System 1 month
Efficiently Train Volunteers 4 months
Develop Training Plan 2 months
Training Sessions 3 weeks
Dry Run Week 1 week
16. 16
Appendix 6: Porter’s 5 Forces
Supplier Power
The supplier of our materials and the capability to keep our site registered is the IRS. The IRS has a lot of power
over VTAP. If VTAP does not conform to code and regulations, the site will be shut down.
Buyer Power
Buyers have little to no power when it comes to VTAP. The buyers of our products do not pay VTAP any money
and VTAP always reserves a right to turn anyone away at anytime. VTAP is offering a service to clients for no
charge. And because VTAP is a volunteer site, VTAP is not liable for the information provided by the tax
preparers.
Competitive Rivalry
The competitive rivalry of VTAP is a unique situation because the only other actual free in-person tax services are
other VITA sites that are under the IRS. And VITA sites don’t necessarily compete with one another. Clients
come to the sites not because one is better than the other but people come based on their own location and where
each VITA site is located.
Threat of Substitution
Substitution is something that VTAP needs to keep in mind. There are many different substitutes: TurboTax,
H&R Block, myfreetaxes.org, other online tax softwares, and other paid preparer services. These softwares are
making it easier for people to prepare their returns themselves. And quite often these softwares offer a free
version for simple returns (MyFreeTaxes is a software by the IRS that offers completely free preparation). This is
causing many people with easy returns to turn to these softwares while people with more difficult returns to come
to VTAP as a free service.
Threat of New Entry
Threat of new entry is minimal, however something to take into consideration. Other schools have started to form
similar programs. These schools will not however take clients away from VTAP because the IRS sections off
people into different zones and everyone who goes to school or works at the University of Minnesota or who lives
within a predetermined radius, is referred to our site.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: VTAP’s client demographics are changing due to more advanced technology that is
creating more advanced tax software for people to use at home, and the IRS has the most power over the site.
17. 17
Appendix 9: Client Process Flow
Take survey on
website to ensure
client is in-scope
Make Appointment
Online
(uofmtaxes.org)
Check-in at VTAP
office front desk
Fill out Intake
Form (15 minutes)
Sit Down with Tax
Preparer while
he/she does your
taxes (30 minutes)
Print Tax Return
and Sign
Quality Reviewer
reviews your taxes
(15 minutes)
18. 18
Appendix 8: VTAP’s Growth
In 2016, VTAP consisted of 105 student volunteers (10 of these volunteers worked for the nonresident site) who
completed 1,723 resident tax returns. This is a 27% growth over the previous tax season. The National Society of
Accountants estimates $159 will be spent per tax return. This means that VTAP saved students $273,957 in
resident tax preparation. In addition, this accounted for $1,553,724 in refunds at the resident site alone.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
2 0 1 1 2 0 1 2 2 0 1 3 2 0 1 4 2 0 1 5 2 0 1 6
NUMBER OF RETURNS COMPLETED
YEARLY
Returns Completed
19. 19
Appendix 9: Transitional Leadership Meeting Agenda
Emily, Christina, Liz, Bridget, David, Matt
Sunday, April 17, 2015 3:30PM
1) Come up with Executive Board & Site
Coordinators and set up meeting between
everyone
o make sure duties of executive board are
set in stone
§ conduct interviews and let them
know in the next two weeks
o this meeting will be crucial for setting
up the next year and everyone knowing
their duties
o set a way for everyone to be accountable
for their responsibilities
o monthly/weekly meetings with board?
o Review duties of all executive board and
make changes
§ Set precedent for how things
should be done (buying things,
marketing, reserving space, etc.)
2) Finance Talk:
o Funding
o Transfer left over money from bank
account
§ Talk to Keon
o Budget
o Records of Receipts
o Audited every 3 years
o Come up with a system how people will
pay for things and how you will record
it
o Debit card/checks
o stipends
3) IT Talk:
o People under you?
o Change email address
o Give list of passwords (who gets access
to what accounts??)
§ Appointy
§ Dropbox (two accounts)
§ TaxWise
§ Email (two accounts)
§ Bank account
§ Social Media
o Set up Appointy right for next year
§ Teach people how to use
Appointy
§ We may need to buy the real
version of this for next year?
o Update Website
§ Switch website from Fall/Spring
§ UPDATE QUALTRICS
SURVEY!!
§ Make sure correct information
(rooms, times, etc.) is correct
right away!
§ WordPress?
§ Get password form Alex
• Star may be a good
resource too
4) TaxWise run-through
o e-filing
o master template
o create accounts
o give account capabilities
o override function
o submit returns separately
o mark as paper filed
o amended returns
o active returns
o rejected returns
§ go through this process and
change for next year
§ we are technically supposed to
contact clients within 24 hours
of their returns getting rejected
o TP diary shows entries from previous
years
o Glitches
§ State returns not always
submitting automatically
§ Does not show if state returns
were rejected when federal was
accepted
5) Saturday Site
o Location must be communicated more
clearly
o Hanson Hall again?
§ Need no reservation for space
6) I will send out an email introducing you to:
o Paul, Marea, Duane (Nonresident)
o Jason Hancock (Coffman Space)
o Abeer, Sam
o Paul Mitchell
o Mary K & Kerrin (IRS)
o Paul Gutterman
o Mike Dixon, Angela Murray
o Duane Rohvit (ISSS)
7) Move out everything out of office by April 28th
20. 20
8) Meeting to discuss nonresident site
o Invite list: Marea, Paul, Duane, Mary K,
Kerrin, nonresident directors, Liz,
Christina, Emily
o Blegan next year NOT Carlson
o No appointment list; walk-ins
o Volunteers need to be more accountable
o Better training
o Information between ISSS and our
website is the same
o Information on website:
§ Glacier
§ M1PR information
9) RSO Information
o Not a part of MSA anymore
o We are a Registered Student
Organization and a Carlson Club
o President’s meetings
§ Liz go to one on Thursday?
o Re-register for RSO status every year
(Finance duty)
o Reserving space using ASTRA
10) Space for next year:
o BOG & Jason
o Discuss this summer
11) Training
o Better e-file training
o Better QR training throughout the
season
o Changing client demographics
§ Treaties
§ Fellowships
12) Tax Questions
o We can have a separate meeting for this
13) Set Up recruiting this summer
o Talking in classrooms
o Register for career fairs
o Set in stone dates of interviews, etc.
14) Next Year Recommendations/other thoughts:
o Train in QR’s earlier
o Fill out intake sheets beforehand
o 4 TP’s at a time?
§ Layout room differently then?
o Set up a phone plan for next year
o Prepare for people to drop out of VTAP
when scheduling
o First week is going to be rough no
matter what
o Mailing addresses for tax returns
o Look through everything in the Dropbox
– lots of great information for all!
o We had to do a lot of amended returns
AND rejected returns this year – reduce
this next year
o Managing email next year is a big
responsibility
o GET EVERYTHING SET UP THIS
SUMMER!!! So then you can just let it
run during the season
§ Recruiting
§ Training
21. 21
Appendix 10: Out of Scope for VTAP
Clients who come to VTAP are NOT allowed to have:
Gross income over $60,000
Guam or Puerto Rico income
Business with inventory or using accrual method
K-1s (partnerships)
Royalties on 1099-MISC
Dependents with capital gains over 2100 (Kiddie Tax)
Cancellation of Debt (1099-C)
Scholarships from Saudi Arabia
Nonresident aliens (send to NR site) or dual-status (refer to professional)
22. 22
Appendix 11: VTAP Demographics
5
15
30
50
Client Demographics
Faculty/Staff Undergraduate Students Graduate Students Unaffiliated with UMN
23. 23
Appendix 12: VTAP’s Current Leadership Hierarchy
Tax Preparer
v Entry level position
v Certify to at least intermediate tax prep through the IRS
v Assist clients in completing intake information
v Work one-on-one with clients to complete tax returns
v Enhance soft and technical skills
Quality Reviewer
v Intermediate level position
v Certify to at least advanced tax prep through the IRS
v Assist tax preparers with complex returns
v Answer complicated questions clients and tax preparers have
v Certify that all tax returns are completed accurately
Site Coordinator
v Advanced level position
v Certify in all IRS tax prep
v Operate multiple tax shifts per week
v Manage four tax preparers and two quality reviewers per shift
v Complete the most complex returns
v Answer the most complex questions clients and volunteers have
v Specialize into a functional area (training, operations, etc.) and take on additional responsibilities
v Prior experience in the program is required
Director
v Top level position
v Responsible for continued success of the program
v Plan budgets, informational sessions, team recruitment and structure
v Work with university leaders to promote program
v Manage an organization of over 60 volunteers
v Run weekly meetings of Site Coordinators
v Ultimately responsible for all operations of the program (set up, execution and follow up)
v Prior service as a site coordinator is required
Director (2)
IT Team (3) Site Coordinators (15)
Quality Reviewers (20)
Tax Preparers (65)
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Appendix 13: Additions to VTAP’s Training
+ Tax Treaty training
+ Fellowship training
+ E-file-ing training
+ EIN and SSN training
+ Out of Scope training
+ Question asking all at once
Appendix 14: Costs and Benefits of Extra Training
Costs:
v More time commitment for training committee and volunteers
v Extra costs for food at training meetings
v Increased responsibility of all volunteers because they will need to understand more difficult tax
preparation reporting
Benefits:
v More efficient office operations because volunteers will know how to do more
v Save approximately 15 minutes per treaty/fellowship return because volunteers will be able to do it
quicker with fewer questions
v Quality Reviewers and Site Coordinators will be able to spend more time answering more difficult
questions instead of needing to prepare the returns themselves
v Volunteers will have more tax knowledge overall
v Increased job enrichment and satisfaction of tax preparers because they are being trusted with more
responsibility
v Volunteers will be able to move up in the organization with more ease because there will be less of a
knowledge gap between positions
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Appendix 15: Documents and Talking Points for Meeting with University of Minnesota Tax Department
v Statistics on number of graduate students helped that were affected by the reporting procedure
v Statistics on extra amount of time to complete these returns
v A recommendation of what can be done to better report the fellowships
o The University of Chicago also ran into this problem. The university has since corrected its
reporting, and a student VTAP knows from the University of Chicago is willing to explain the
changes to the University of Minnesota to prove that there is a better way to report this
v Illustrations from various graduate students to show that each one has their income/fellowship reported in
a different way
v Explain the tax implications of reporting the information incorrectly
o Penalties charged by the IRS for underestimating income and failure to pay correct amount
o Graduate students could be missing out on larger refunds due to incorrect reporting
v Emphasize VTAP’s commitment with helping work on the process
Appendix 16: Recommendation #2 Detail
1. VTAP needs to make sure that each shift runs as efficiently as possible and there is no “dead time” for volunteers.
We will make sure this does not happen by creating a better screening process before a person is allowed to make an
appointment. With this screening questionnaire, the survey will determine if the client needs 30 minutes, 60 minutes,
or 120 minutes and schedule the client for the appropriate amount of time. Then the client will receive one email
reminder and one text reminder of his or her upcoming appointment. Currently, every client is allotted 60 minutes.
By identifying clients who only need 30 minutes, we would be able to fit two clients in that hour instead of only one.
2. The VTAP directors will work with the University of Minnesota to reform the fellowship reporting process. Once
fellowships are reported correctly, we estimate that VTAP will be able to take half as much time on a graduate
student’s tax return, resulting in more opportunities to serve more clients. Being that graduate students make up
about 30% of VTAP’s clients, this will save an estimated three hours of work time per business day that can be used
to help more people.
3. Clients need to either print off the intake sheets beforehand and fill them out or arrive 15 minutes early to their
appointment to fill out the form. These instructions will be given when the client schedules an appointment.
Currently, most clients show up right at the appointment time, resulting in idle time for the tax preparers.
4. Establish monthly Quality Reviewer and Site Coordinator training to review problems and new topics that come up
throughout the year. This will decrease uncertainty and the need to research tax law on shifts to allow for faster
output of tax returns.
