A luncheon was held recently at CQU Sydney International Campus to thank the students who volunteered at Tax Help Centres supported by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Tax Help is a free volunteer service supported by the ATO which enables people earning less than $35,000 to receive free help with their tax return.

The TECC (Training, Employment and Career Coaching) team headed by Suzana Vicentijevic has worked hard with the ATO in establishing 2 Tax Help Centres at CQU.

Beginning in May 2006, TECC began the process by sorting and reviewing hundreds of applications from CQU students who applied for the volunteer positions. Eventually 20 students were picked and invited to a Tax Help training course which was worth over $500 and run by the ATO.

The Tax Help Centre opened to CQU Sydney students in July. Since its commencement, over 400 students have visited the centre, giving volunteers an excellent opportunity to develop their taxation skills and gain experience.

To celebrate the hard work and excellent service offered by the volunteers, a luncheon was organised by TECC to say thank you to the volunteers for making CQU one of the largest Tax Help Centres in NSW.

Many CQU Sydney International students have gained work in accounting. Prashant Vaswani is an assistant accountant at Colin Thomas & Associates, Peggy Zhang is an assistant accountant at Dawsons Chartered Accountancy, Virali Dalal works for ABAS Accountancy and Muhammad Uddin is an assistant accountant for SwireShipping.

Photo: Campus Director Barbara Abou-Lehaf (centre) and Suzana Vicentijevic TECC Manager (far right) with students and staff involved in the Tax Help program in Sydney.