Tax sea­son is well under way and for some col­lege stu­dents, fil­ing taxes can be just as stress­ful as prepar­ing for final exams.

With the proper research, resources, and time, fil­ing taxes can be become rel­a­tively sim­ple and the last minute rush can be avoided. Should stu­dents need to file taxes, the Ferris Accounting Association is one option stu­dents can turn to for assistance.

The orga­ni­za­tion pro­vides stu­dents with help on their tax doc­u­ments for a fee. They charge $6 for com­plet­ing a tax return plus an addi­tional $2 for each doc­u­ment needed to com­plete the return, such as a W-2, 1098, 1099 and others.

“The cost is very cheap com­pared to any other method of com­plet­ing your tax return,” said James Heine, a mem­ber of the Accounting Association that is in charge of the pro­gram. “All stu­dents have to do is show up, fill out a short ques­tion­naire with infor­ma­tion needed to com­plete their return, and give us their documents.”

All money that is col­lected goes toward the orga­ni­za­tion. Any inter­ested stu­dents can get help from 11 to 11:30 a.m. in Business 216 every Thursday until April 8. Students must first email the Accounting Association before attend­ing one of these ses­sions. They can be reached at ferrisaccountingassociation@yahoo.com.

Heine also sug­gested stu­dents take advan­tage of web sites and pro­grams, such as TurboTax, that assist stu­dents in com­plet­ing their return.

The Internal Revenue Service is offer­ing col­lege stu­dents and first-time fil­ers some­thing that can ease the fed­eral tax return process.

Free File is a tax soft­ware pro­gram pro­vided by the IRS and other pri­vate sec­tor part­ners that allows peo­ple to pre­pare and elec­tron­i­cally sub­mit their fed­eral tax return for free. The pro­gram fol­lows an easy-to-use ser­vice that asks users ques­tions and then com­pletes the appro­pri­ate tax forms based on user’s answers. New tax­pay­ers can find and uti­lize Free File at www​.irs​.gov/​f​r​e​e​f​ile where they can choose from about 20 dif­fer­ent pro­gram options.

There are two dif­fer­ent for­mats to fed­eral Free File: Traditional Free File which is the step-by-step pro­gram that is offered by par­tic­i­pat­ing com­pa­nies, and the Free File Fillable Forms which is the elec­tronic ver­sion of the IRS paper forms that do sim­ple math.

Each pro­gram has dif­fer­ent eli­gi­bil­ity require­ments but any­one mak­ing less than $54,000 can find at least one option to choose. There is no income lim­i­ta­tion for the Free File Fillable Forms, but would most likely be the best option for peo­ple com­fort­able fil­ing their own taxes. Both for­mats are free and allow for free elec­tronic filing.

Students must also remem­ber to file city income taxes as well. Big Rapids income tax forms may be down­loaded from the city’s web site, www​.ci​.big​-rapids​.mi​.us. City tax returns must be filed by April 30, while state and fed­eral taxes are due by April 15.

Returns and remit­tances with the proper wage and tax state­ments can be mailed to the city at 226 N. Michigan Ave. or dropped off at City Hall. Payments should be made payable to the “City of Big Rapids.”

Heine said, “The tax return is usu­ally sim­ple and won’t change a whole lot from year to year unless some­thing dras­tic has changed with their income.”

He also added that stu­dents should look into the var­i­ous edu­ca­tional tax cred­its and deduc­tions that are avail­able to students.

“The edu­ca­tion cred­its are very com­mon for stu­dents that claim them­selves,” he said. “If the stu­dent puts in a lit­tle extra effort to learn about them, it will def­i­nitely pay off.”

There are a few dif­fer­ent edu­ca­tional tax cred­its that stu­dents can qual­ify for. Only the one that claims the stu­dent as a depen­dent can claim these cred­its. Typically they only qual­ify for one or two, not all of them.

The Hope Scholarship Credit pro­vides a tax credit for up to 100 per­cent of the first $1,000 in tuition and fees and up to 50 per­cent for the sec­ond $1,000. The max­i­mum tax credit is $1,500 and only applies to the first two years of college.

The Lifetime Learning Credit gives a credit equal to 20 per­cent of tuition and cer­tain related expenses up to $10,000. The credit max­i­mum is capped at $2,000.

The higher edu­ca­tion expenses deduc­tion can be as much as $4,000 for fam­i­lies and indi­vid­u­als meet­ing cer­tain income brack­ets. The American Opportunity Credit pro­vides a max­i­mum $2,500 credit for things such as tuition, books, and fees.

It is impor­tant for stu­dents deter­mine whether or not their par­ents will be claim­ing them as a depen­dent. If their par­ents pay for more than 50 per­cent of the student’s expenses, the par­ents are eli­gi­ble to claim the stu­dent as a dependent.

By tak­ing the proper steps such as hav­ing all the proper paper­work in order, giv­ing them­selves a good amount of time, and start­ing early stu­dents can limit the amount of time and stress that is needed to file taxes and ensure that the process can go smoothly. n