Tech Assistance
It was another productive year for the Cal Poly Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, thanks to the technological solutions it implemented to run its programs and ensure the privacy of its clients.
By Gabby Ferreira and Laura Maranta
For 10 years, the Cal Poly Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) has served people in need from all over Central California while providing a valuable Learn by Doing experience for accounting students. But when the pandemic hit in March of 2020, the LITC had to readjust to continue safely upholding their mission.
“My biggest concern was confidentiality issues because students are handling very confidential information,” said Lisa Sperow, the clinic’s executive director. “Clients send us things like bank statements, medical records and tax returns. At that point, early in the pandemic, I wasn’t quite sure how that was going to work in a completely virtual environment.”
In a typical year, the LITC works with clients who meet low-income guidelines and have a controversy, or legal dispute, with the IRS. Volunteer lawyers, along with students, remedy the situation, advocating on their clients’ behalf and finding workable solutions with the IRS.
There’s also an educational component, where LITC students go out onto campus, into tax court and into the greater San Luis Obispo County community to educate people about their rights and responsibilities as taxpayers.
“The LITC is such a great service for the community and a really powerful Learn by Doing experience for our students, so we wanted to make sure we did everything possible to keep them running safely and securely.” —Frank Gonzales
Sperow canceled the spring 2020 clinic course while the LITC worked with IT to address security concerns. She also kept on a few trusted students who worked remotely to resolve any ongoing issues for clients. Eddy Quijano, the clinic’s founder and a pro bono panel member lawyer, helped out during the spring 2020 quarter and subsequent shift in the clinic’s operations.
Frank Gonzales, the college’s IT consultant, also configured the LITC system so students could access the computers in the clinic securely and remotely. Some students still needed to be in the clinic to print documents and carry out functions that couldn’t be done via computer, making the LITC, at the time, the only class within OCOB with an in-person component.
“I remember spending a good portion of Saturdays and Sundays in the LITC office reconfiguring and installing some of the software that was needed for remote access,” Gonzales recalls. “The LITC is such a great service for the community and a really powerful Learn by Doing experience for our students, so we wanted to make sure we did everything possible to keep them running safely and securely.”
While a mostly virtual environment presented challenges, both Sperow and her students said being able to help their clients safely was the best and most important part of their work. And thanks to their ability to adapt, the clinic was able to operate in a mostly normal capacity throughout last year’s tax season — including a virtual visit to tax court.
In the spring of 2021, the clinic then received another opportunity to log into a high profile virtual space: the Taxation Section of the California Lawyers Association’s annual Washington, D.C. Delegation.
“Coming into the Cal Poly LITC program, I was hoping to have an impact on residents in the San Luis Obispo community. I am so grateful that I have been able to not only impact this community, but reach further to an even greater audience by diving into the issues of representation facing Generation Z.” —Tia Bentivegna
Each year for the past 30 years, the Taxation Section of the California Lawyers Association selects a handful of members to participate in its annual Washington, D.C. Delegation in which selected delegates present their ideas on ways to improve the federal tax laws and system and engage in discussions with key tax officials.
This year, a group of five LITC students — Tia Bentivegna, Ridge Schorling, Garrett Rexford, Andris Germanis and Rachel Farris — worked with Sperow to gather data, analyze data, perform research and write a paper proposing ways the IRS can use technology and education to make tax filing more accessible and understandable for the newest generation of taxpayers.
These students presented their work at the D.C. Delegation. They also presented to the IRS Chief Counsel’s Office, the Treasury Department, the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Taxpayer Advocate Service, the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
“Coming into the Cal Poly LITC program, I was hoping to have an impact on residents in the San Luis Obispo community,” said Bentivegna. “I am so grateful that I have been able to not only impact this community, but reach further to an even greater audience by diving into the issues of representation facing Generation Z.”
Clearly, it was another productive and successful year for the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic — thanks to the technological workarounds they needed to keep their programs running.