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Students from the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Collat School of Business were instrumental in helping Alabama’s SaveFirst initiative serve a record number of families during the 2014 tax season.
During the first six weeks of tax season, 52 students from UAB’s Department of Accounting and Finance worked at free tax preparation sites in Birmingham to prepare 2,000 tax returns for working families — helping them to secure $3.3 million in tax refunds and saving them $594,000 in commercial tax preparation fees.
“We are very excited about our growth this year and could not have achieved this without the support of UAB,” said Stephen Black, founder and president of Impact Alabama. “Professor Eddie Nabors, particularly his leadership with the Beta Alpha Psi honors students, has been invaluable in recruiting students to participate, coordinating service-learning opportunities for students and helping to arrange training sessions.”
SaveFirst is just one component of Impact Alabama — a student service initiative that collaborates with colleges, universities and communities throughout the state to develop and implement service-learning projects designed to engage students in addressing human and community needs while also enhancing students’ sense of social and civic responsibility.
UAB students collaborated with more than 500 students from 15 other campuses across the state to assist low-income, working families. In total, SaveFirst students assisted more than 8,200 families who claimed $14.9 million in refunds and saved approximately $2.5 million in commercial preparation fees — a 31 percent increase in families served compared to the previous tax season.