Animas Foundation Teaches VMLC Students the Fundamentals of Self-Employment Taxes

DALLAS - Dec. 22, 2015 - PRLog -- Students at VMLC’s Vickery Meadow campus attended a three-hour class called Tax Matters for the Self-Employed from Animas Foundation Executive Director, Dale Turner.  The class is part of the Foundation’s new proprietary financial literacy curriculum that has been specifically tailored for and being taught to adult English language learners whose native language is not English.  The specially constructed class material covered the fundamental IRS rules regarding taxes for those who are self-employed or want own their own business.

Turner, who is also a Certified Financial Education Instructor, said, “The special needs of adult English language learners, and a realization that many financial literacy programs on the market today fail to address those needs, prompted the Foundation to re-craft traditional financial education programs with a teaching methodology presented in such a way that helps English as a second language (ESL) students understand, learn and retain the class material.”

“VMLC is engaged in helping immigrant and refugee families improve their English literacy and life skills,” said Beth Wise, Student Outcomes Manager. “We have attempted to provide financial literacy classes in the past, but the material was too text-heavy and filled with obscure terminology not appropriate to the needs of a new learner of English.  The Animas Foundation presented the material in a way that was both understandable and relevant to our students.” she added.

The Animas Foundation’s Tax Matters for the Self-Employed is part of a community outreach program to teach adult ESL students how to manage their personal and business finances, including taxes.  Those who are self-employed, or work on a contract basis but are not considered employees for any company, have special obligations under the IRS tax rules that can be confusing.  Teaching this material to adults learning English as a second language is much more difficult if the instruction methodology isn’t adapted to their special learning needs.

“These students worked very hard to learn and understand a complicated tax code that included how to collect and pay sales taxes, making quarterly payments to the IRS for estimated Income and Self-Employment taxes, record keeping and a whole lot more,” Turner said.   “I was impressed with their desire to learn and understand complex information, which can be confusing even to those who speak English as their native language,” he added.

Animas is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation with a social mission to improve the economic lives of low-income families in North Texas with financial education programs, and with micro-lending and business mentoring programs for entrepreneurs who lack access to traditional sources of capital lending.  For more information about the Foundation and its mission, please visit www.animasfoundation.org.

VMLC, founded as Vickery Meadow Learning Center, improves English literacy levels among non-English speaking adults and their young children by providing programs in communication and life skills. VMLC’s free, award-winning education programs help students improve their lives and find a pathway out of poverty. The organization provides free English literacy and early childhood education programs to 1,200 adults and 330 young children annually. For more information, visit www.VMLC.org.