{"pk":54607,"title":"Simplifying Financial Resource Applications for Low-Income College Students with Return-Free Filing","subtitle":null,"abstract":"The complexity of the American tax code disproportionately affects low-income college students who rely heavily on information from their tax returns for important financial resources (e.g. financial aid) but are unable to afford assistance from costly tax-filing services. As a result, low-income college students benefit from return-free filing services. This paper assesses the potential of using return-free tax filing as a resource to support low-income college students with identifying their eligibility and applying for financial resources such as financial aid and SNAP benefits. Using survey data from low-income students attending UCLA, we describe the difficulties faced in filing taxes and applying for financial resources. We find that students are interested in receiving assistance from return-free filing services for both processes. Then, we determine how interest varies by gender, racial identity, parental education, past filing experience, and primary language spoken at home.","language":"en","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"return-free filing"},{"word":"FAFSA"},{"word":"SNAP benefits"},{"word":"College"},{"word":"low-income"}],"section":"Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8cq231bk","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Joleen","middle_name":"","last_name":"Chiu","name_suffix":"","institution":"","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2022-09-02T18:50:32Z","date_accepted":"2022-09-02T18:50:32Z","date_published":"2022-01-01T00:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/alephucla/article/54607/galley/41152/download/"}]}