MSU professorship recognizes instructor's tax clinic work

When Missouri State University began its Public Affairs Professorship program last year, its purpose was to honor a faculty member who exemplified MSU's public affairs mission through community engagement, cultural competence and ethical leadership. Professor Sandra Byrd, Ph.D., and certified public accountant, was deemed a perfect fit, becoming the first Public Affairs Professor in May 2008.

"We have recognized students who exemplified the public affairs mission in the past, but we really hadn't recognized faculty," said MSU Provost Belinda McCarthy, Ph.D.

Significant service

One of the first female accountants to practice in Springfield, Byrd joined MSU in 1977, becoming the first person with a Ph.D. hired in the School of Accountancy.

But it was her work spearheading the Missouri State Public Service Tax Clinic that won her the Public Affairs Professorship, which comes with a $7,500 stipend from the MSU Foundation.

The Missouri State Public Service Tax Clinic, expanded by Byrd in 2000, includes the Volunteer Individual Tax Assistance program, the Tax Counseling for the Elderly program and the Low Income Tax Clinic.

In 2001, Byrd also founded the Across The Life Span financial network, a community coalition in which MSU students work with community organizations to aid families in poverty and senior citizens. The ATLS financial network provided information and services to about 48,000 people in 2008 alone.

Between January 2001 and April 2007, students and volunteers with VITA/TCE under the ATLS coalition provided tax preparation services that garnered more than $6 million in refunds for working families and seniors.

There is no permanent funding for the VITA program, so "every year we have to go out and hunt for funding," Byrd said, noting that money typically comes from grants.

The Low Income Tax Clinic provides assistance to people who have tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service.

Between January 2001 and December 2006, MSU students working in the LITC closed 439 tax controversies involving 529 tax issues. LITC services are available to anyone with earnings of up to 250 percent of the poverty level. For a family of four, for example, income would need to be less than $52,500 to be eligible for LITC assistance.

The low-income clinic is funded through an IRS grant matched dollar-for-dollar by MSU.

Since 2003, total grants of $630,857 have resulted in tax refunds of almost $38 million to the community.

Real-world experience

The experience that students gain through the VITA and LITC programs goes beyond tax knowledge, Byrd said.

"They're going to learn how to take a difficult topic and make it simple for somebody to understand," she added, noting that the benefit is in "the communication skills they're going to be gaining, time management skills and learning how to sort and how to compilate difficult information."

Students also see firsthand how tax policy affects people.

"We're going to see a lot of that this year," Byrd said.

For example, the earned income credit won't be there for people who used to receive it but are now on unemployment.

"Unemployment doesn't count as earned income; they're not going to get that earned income credit and they're going to owe taxes on that unemployment," Byrd said. "Our students are going to have to learn how to explain that to people. They're going to deal with sensitive communication."

Tax issues are emotional, and in some cases, devastating.

"We've got people that can barely get by on their Social Security, and the IRS is taking 10 (percent) to 15 percent of it. They just can't live," Byrd said. "We've had cases where the people have come in and the IRS is wanting to take their burial insurance policies."

Students in the program must often address issues of financial literacy as well.

For example, many people who are self-employed don't realize they should save about 30 percent of what they earn to pay self-employment taxes, and they should make estimated tax payments quarterly.

And then there are the surprises - such as what can be considered income.

"Every year, we have people that come in that have had credit card debt forgiven and all of a sudden they have this 1099-C; they have to pay tax on what is forgiven, and they just can't believe they have to pay tax on something that wasn't income," Byrd said.

That real-world experience "definitely takes them outside the ivory tower," she said.

The value of that experience is not lost on the accounting industry.

Kevin Scott, supervisor of the Branson office of BKD LLP, worked with Byrd in the VITA and LITC programs in 2002 as a graduate assistant.

"While you're going through school, you'll get the book-learning experience, but most of the time, unless you go out and do an internship, you're not receiving any hands-on experience," Scott said.

With VITA, "you're going to prepare a lot of tax returns. If you actually go into the tax side of it in your career, you have a leg up on people."

His experience with VITA and LITC also had a major effect on his career path.

"Besides helping the community out with free tax preparation, it was a huge influence on me and my career in which way to go in accounting - whether auditing or tax preparation," said Scott, who chose tax preparation.[[In-content Ad]]