Quitayen, Ianna Carmel Y.

April 20, 2016

ACTG 15 ACA

Reflection on Tax Tulungan:

“A day with a client”
A theory is a means best expressed in a book. However, an application
constitutes that of an experience. In my opinion, what’s written in a book will become
better when it is experienced. For over a year of learning through reading the book,
doing exercises from the book, answering seat works, assignments, quizzes and tests
which may have originated also from a book, taxation has only been a context printed in
thick sheets of paper in my view.
In a span of five days – April 11 to 15, 2016, Xavier University Junior Philippine
Institute of Accountants were able to be of good service in aiding the Bureau of Internal
Revenue (BIR) Cagayan de Oro City in the last week of filing of the income tax return. I
had a terrific experience! On the day of the first duty, it was nerve-wracking. Even when
we were briefed about what to do, the worry of not getting the work done properly kept
building up as lot of people continued to walk inside the room. The first client I attended
to was an old woman who was a life insurance agent. I was so nervous that even she
noticed how my hands were trembling. The room was cold but I was sweating profusely.
But when she started asking me questions about how her taxes came to be, that’s when
I started to feel less anxious. As she continued to ask more questions, it felt nice
knowing I was able to answer her by recalling what I have read in the textbooks we’ve
used. A memory popped in my head at that moment which was one of ma’am Emata’s
unexpected seat works, after which she had discussed to the whole class the answer to
the activity. Siguro, I was just so amazed that finally, there I was using some of the
lessons I’ve learned in class, some of which I’ve only seen in books. Truly, even when
we were simply inputting the details in the eBIR forms, it still made me quite happy
knowing I was able to pull it off with my first client. I have not actually utilized everything
I’ve learned in taxation as it was only a portion, but still, it felt really good to have
applied it in the real world! Other than the achievement of a student, another thing
struck me from this experience. Tama gyud si Meow-meow when he said that it feels
good to help others know because I felt that myself. In fact, I had experienced a
fantastic day at the BIR with the clients that I wanted to get more of it and decided that I
would come back the next day. To assist others to improve their knowledge about their
taxes, for me, is the part where I truly enjoyed myself. Even when the number of people
that popped inside the room did not decrease, I felt more and more excited to attend to
them.
After three days of duty at the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the theories written
on those sheets of paper became less of a concept and more of an actuality. It ended
with us, students, having to learn more from the experience. Well, I think that what truly
mattered in the process was not what we brought home for ourselves, but what we gave
our clients to bring to their homes – knowledge about how to keep their taxes at a
minimum, a knowledge about why taxes were necessary, and most of all, how their
taxes came to be. In sum, this experience has been especially wonderful for me, for my
classmates, for BIR, and for our clients!