10
University Daily Kansan
Campus/Area
Fridav. March 7. 1986
Services aid slow tax filers
By Brian Kaberline
Staff writer
Students who are putting off filing income tax returns, hoping they will go away, can rest easier. Several services are available to make tax forms more understandable, if not easier.
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program will prepare student's federal returns free. VITA, a countrywide federal program, is staffed in Lawrence by members of the KU Accounting Club.
Other federal services as well and state programs and private tax preparation services also are available locally.
VITA is offered at the Burge Union and at three other places in the city, Fritz Wood, club president said recently.
Club volunteers are trained to do the basic 1040EZ and 1040A forms. If more extensive work is required, the volunteers refer the taxpayer to one of the local tax services, he said.
Wood said the VITA program in Lawrence served about 300 people
last year. He expected about as many this year.
Few students have used the service this year, he said, but that could be because some of the help sessions had been on home basketball game nights. Also, most students have little trouble filing their returns, he said.
James Manuszk, public affairs officer for the Internal Revenue Service in Kansas, said he thought most students could be by doing their own returns unless they had to file itemized returns or had business or farm-related incomes.
"If you're smart enough to get to college, you ought to be smart enough to get through a 1040EZ form," he said.
Manusak also said many students with small incomes should consider filing a form with their employers to exempt them from withholding taxes.
As long as student's incomes are below the minimum tax amount, they are exempt from filing returns.
there are places to turn — mainly the telephone.
But if students do have trouble,
Manusakz said taxpayers who were filing their own returns could get information from a toll-free telephone number, a taped information service and from the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.
Manusak said the IRS's toll-free number, 1-800-424-1040, had increased its staff and the number of lines available this year to serve the public better.
He said the number was a popular service and was the mainstay of federal tax assistance.
The state also offers a help hotline. Operators at the Kansas Department of Revenue regional office in Topeka will answer tax-related questions and explain tax forms line by line, Barbara Clark, spokesman for the department, said.
To use the service, callers must first fill out their federal returns. Clark said. The number is not toll-free.
Another IRS program is the
Tele-Tax service. By calling 1-800-554-4477, the taxpayer may request tapes on different areas of concern, Manuszkak said.
The tapes may be contacted with a three-digit code listed in the federal income tax booklet. People with touch-tone telephones may use the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he said. Rotary phone users must call during regular business hours.
For more local assistance, the Lawrence Public Library has an extensive collection of IRS publications and forms, Cecilia May, reference librarian, said. The library also has taped information on filing federal returns.
The instructions are on cassette tape and VHS video tape and may be checked out by any library user, she said.
Ray Alvarez, branch manager for HFC Thrift of Kansas, 1822 W. 23rd St., said free programs were good for those who had simple returns to file. Those with more complicated returns should consider professional services, he said.
Bill would punish library book theft
By Abbie Jones
Staff writer
TOPEKA — Library book stealers may get the same prosecution as an everyday thief under an amended Senate bill introduced in the House yesterday.
the bill would place library material within the Kansas statute for crimes against property. Failure to return a book or other library material within 30 days of receiving a written notice would be punishable as a misdemeanor.
L. M. Cornish, general and legislative counsel for the Kansas Library Association, said librarians needed a bill to punish people who took books without returning them.
"We think the bill will solve the library problem," he said. "The law enforcement in some communities
were not quite recognizing theft.'
The state librarian proposed a similar bill last month which defined library theft as removing any materials without permission, using a false or expired library card or using a library card without the owner's consent. Theft of materials worth more than $150 would have been a felony under the original bill.
"The Senate committee felt the other bill might have been too strong, too difficult to enforce," Cornish said. "I think the bill still gives the libraries what they need to recover some of the materials."
State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, said he doubted whether the number of charges would increase as a result of the bill but said it would give librarians the chance to use it on those people who were book thieves.
On the Record
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