Youth Participation University in Tax Advice via the Learning Service

Abstract

Taxation is one of the main sources of income of a country. When the government wants to increase economic and social development of its country, it is necessary to raise taxes or tax rates on the tax base. However, it becomes complicated when the informality of the economically active population has remained at around 45%, as is the case of Ecuador, and the people who are forced to pay these taxes mostly have questions or they do not know how to do it. For this reason, the Politécnica Salesiana University decided to sign an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service (SRI), so that students studying accounting could provide tax advice in solidarity to taxpayers who have questions or problems in their tax return forms. This article describes and analyzes the development of the office of voluntary taxpayer assistance that was implemented in the university, and how service learning influenced students, and 250 taxpayers in the sector. It also includes detailed instructions for other universities to implement a similar program and a discussion of taxes that need higher advice.