Majority of students unconcerned by taxes

Author: Tamara Hilmes

Yesterday was April 15 - a dreaded day for many of our parents who must, yet again, file their taxes. Though the wide world of adulthood may continue to loom far off in the distance for the average college student, others have found themselves already taking on the burdens of a taxpayer in addition to attending lectures and doing homework. These tax-savvy students, however, are few and far between on Middlebury's campus.

"I've never met anyone my own age who has done their own taxes. No one," said Molly Curtis '10, who filed her federal and state income taxes for the first time on Monday. Curtis has been employed since she was 13, and has never filed her taxes before now. She explained, though, that she had never earned enough to require her to do so. According to the "Do You Have to File?" section of the 1040 tax return form, if a person earns $400 or more during one year, he or she must file a tax return. "It was awful," Curtis said, explaining that no one, not even her parents, had shown her how to file her taxes.

The Campus performed a random sampling of dining halls and classrooms as tax day drew nearer, and discovered that Curtis' plight is shared by many students. Not only did several admit to not knowing how to go about filing their own taxes, but some admitted to just flat-out not filing because of the same lack of awareness. Each year, a number of students who receive financial aid from the College choose not to file a tax return. According to Senior Director of Student Financial Services Kim Downs, "approximately 500 [undergraduate] students of the financial aid applicant population were non-filers" for the 2008-2009 tax cycle.

For the rest of the students on campus who did not submit non-filing forms, but were required to file for 2008-2009, the question remains - who is filing their taxes, if they are not doing so themselves? Several students said that their parents file them on their behalf, and others have their taxes done by their parents' accountants.

"My parents just take theirs to an accountant, and since mine only takes him an extra five minutes or so to do, I just send mine in with theirs," said Tom Brush '10, a member of the Student Finance Committee. Most students, like Brush, are only required to submit two or three forms.

Although they remain the minority, some students found themselves downloading forms from the Internet and crunching numbers to fill in the blanks when they were were not attending class, doing homework or lazing around the dining hall. Jessica Campbell '09, an employee at the Middlebury Recycling Center and a Peer Writing Tutor for the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources (CTLR), began filing her own taxes about two years ago.

"Mine were pretty simple and straightforward," said Campbell. "I work on campus and had a summer job, and I had all of my W-2s - pretty typical. It seemed like it all came together well, so hopefully I won't get a nasty letter in the mail in a couple months or something."

Though many students have yet to make this small step into the realm of adulthood, those who scrambled to get their forms in on time yesterday can take a long sigh of relief - until tax day rolls around again next year, that is. But who knows, perhaps Dunkin' Donuts will once again give out free treats on tax day like they did in 2008. Only time will tell.