Volunteer Tax Assistance Program Wrapping Up 14th Year

The 2008 Lewis & Clark Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is wrapping up another successful year. Three clients still have their returns outstanding awaiting further documentation -- all three filed extension documents to meet the April 15 deadline - and they are expected to get their returns filed within a week or two.

This was our 14th annual VITA program at Lewis & Clark. Around 30 clients were served. As always, noting that "charity begins at home," the program devoted its efforts to helping international students comply with their sometimes-onerous tax filing obligations in the United States. To participate, law student volunteers must undergo training on foreign student tax problems; do a few hours of additional reading and thinking on their own; and be available on one or more afternoons, when international students from the undergraduate campus come to the law school for tax form preparation assistance.

The training gives volunteers the skills they need to participate, and all work will be done in two-person teams. Each international student "client" will meet with a law faculty supervisor and one or two law student volunteers, and together they prepare the client's federal and state tax returns and related forms.

In addition to helping their fellow students, volunteers are guaranteed to learn some things about U.S. international taxation. More information is available on the VITA web page, here.

Thanks to Our Visiting Professors

The Lewis & Clark tax program is grateful to the visiting professors who were in residence at the law school over the last two years while two of our regular profs were on sabbatical leave. Visiting professor Roger Groves taught Income Taxation I, State and Local Taxation, Business Associations I, and Sports and Entertainment Law at Lewis & Clark over two years. Groves's article on tax incentives for urban renewal has been accepted for publication in Florida Tax Review, where it is scheduled to be published later this year. While at Lewis & Clark, he published his book Innocence in the Red Zone -- The Adversity and Opportunity of Bobby Williams: the Story of an African-American Coach in Big Time College Football. Groves has joined the faculty of Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville.

Nancy Neslund spent a year at Lewis & Clark teaching Estate and Gift Tax, Wills and Trusts, Business Associations II, and Corporate & Partnership Tax - Short Course. She has also taught as a visitor at several other law schools, including Columbia University and the University of San Diego. She has extensive practice experience and has published extensively, including scholarly work about the World Trade Organization. This year Neslund is a visiting professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.