Taxes, taxes, and football.

Hello potential MPAs, actual MPAs, and others around the UT community,

Welcome to my MPA blog! My name is Natalie Jacobs, and I am in my first year of the Master in Professional Accounting program at the McCombs School. I am doing the integrated approach, so it is also my third year of undergrad here at UT.  I’m really excited to be writing for this blog, and I’m going to try and update as often as I have interesting things to say, so please check back frequently!

It’s two days after our football team’s third straight win over a top-11 opponent… the season is getting so exciting that it’s becoming very difficult to concentrate on school! I have three midterms this week and yet somehow I can’t stop worrying about Texas Tech’s offense this coming Saturday.

What I should really be worrying about is my Introduction to Taxation midterm tomorrow morning. “Organizational form,” “corporate tax returns,” “choice of business entity.” All of these terms sound so interesting that it’s hard to imagine why I’d procrastinate on the studying to write a blog entry, right? 😉

Accounting Practicum

Speaking of taxes, and given that it’s right before registration for Spring 2009, I’d like to talk about the ACC366P Accounting Practicum course offered in the spring. I took this course last year, and I think it’s an incredibly worthwhile experience!

Do you enjoy:

  • Volunteering?
  • Getting 3 hours of credit for going to one 1.5 hour class per week?
  • Minimal homework?
  • An easy A in your Accounting GPA?
  • No final?
  • No class past mid-April?

If so, then Accounting Practicum is the class for you!

ACC366P is an accounting course that involves volunteering with Community Tax Centers to help low-income Austin families file their annual tax returns. You volunteer throughout the tax season (February- April) at locations around the Austin area. At the beginning of the semester, you receive basic training for filing tax returns. Then, once the tax season starts, you are required to volunteer somewhere around 70 total hours within about three months.

Seventy hours may sound like a lot, but it’s really not that bad! Hours are extremely flexible. You can sign up to volunteer whenever is convenient for you: day or evening, any day of the week.  And it’s never boring. The work is far from monotonous because you’re constantly dealing with different tax issues on different returns. If you enjoy problem solving, you’d enjoy this course. 

It is one of the most gratifying volunteer opportunities I’ve experienced because I was able to immediately see how much money I helped families save on taxes. Had there not been Community Tax Centers for these families to come to, they would have had to pay someone to file their return, which means that a portion of their already-meager tax refund is taken as commission. The people are always so grateful for your help; it’s an honest feel-good experience.

Please let me know if you have questions about this course. I really enjoyed it and would be more than happy to speak to anyone about it.

3 thoughts on “Taxes, taxes, and football.”

  1. I hope you’re not saying we’re limited to posting just when we have interesting things to say. That’d be bad. 😉

  2. Practicum was a lot of fun, and the A is always loved. 🙂 Plus, it was one of four classes I have taken with Professor Lendecky<—AWESOME!

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