By Aimee Green
oregonlive.com
(TNS)
Bend college student Nova Budler almost didn’t file her 2025 tax returns—her first ever—for jobs she worked as a food server in Ashland and as an administrative assistant in Bend.
The 17-year-old figured there was no need to because she made below the government-mandated threshold for filing and her parents would claim her as a dependent on their tax returns. But after learning that she could still file and in fact she should, Budler went ahead and submitted her own returns.
She was stunned by the results. She received approximately $1,500 in refunds.
“I was hugely impressed and, obviously, very grateful as a very poor college student,” said Budler, who attends Central Oregon Community College. Now, she’s telling friends and acquaintances alike that they should file, too.
“Everybody I come across, it’s like a main point of conversation,” Budler said.
Tax experts say that, like Budler, many high school and college students who are working their first jobs—as well as low-income earners of all ages—can receive hefty tax refunds by filing federal and state tax returns, even though they are not required to submit those forms.
The IRS doesn’t require U.S. workers who make below a certain income—that’s $15,750 for most single people in 2025—to file a tax return. The threshold for state returns varies by state. In Oregon, it’s lower than the federal bar—for instance, $7,935 for a single person whom someone else is claiming as a dependent.
At McKay High School in Salem, business teacher Marcia Latta trained about a dozen students this year on how to use free tax filing software so they could help classmates file their taxes at free filing clinics. To draw in willing participants, the clinics offered perks like coffee shop gift cards, paid for by a grant from the Oregon Department of Human Services.
One high schooler received $269 in tax refunds. A former student who took part received almost $1,200. Latta told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she’s delighted she and her trainees have been able to get cash back in the hands of others.
But sometimes people owe taxes, especially if their employer didn’t withhold the proper amount or the person was self-employed, said Shelly Krehbiel, an Oregon State University program manager for the IRS’ Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. The program at OSU has trained about 90 students over the past few years to offer others free tax-filing help. VITA primarily offers its services to U.S. taxpayers who make less than approximately $69,000 a year, have a disability, are students or have limited English-speaking abilities.
Krehbiel said many people are due refunds, and she’s seen the amounts range from as little as $2 to as much as $10,000. Those higher numbers usually are the result of low- to moderate-income earners who failed to claim state or federal tax credits, like the Earned Income Tax Credit or child tax credits.
“Usually for really young people like high schoolers who don’t have a lot of responsibilities, … they want to spend it on something fun,” Krehbiel said.
But Krehbiel said priorities often change with age. She recalls one working mom in her early 20s who hadn’t filed taxes in the past few years. A VITA volunteer recently helped her belatedly file her 2024 returns, as well as her 2025 returns, Krehbiel said. The woman, who had a preschool-aged daughter, received a $9,000 refund.
“She came out of there actually crying a little,” Krehbiel said. “That’s rent money. That is food money. That’s going to help her and her daughter.”
Tax experts say some high schoolers and college students don’t file because they incorrectly believe they cannot, since their parents already claim them as dependents. The Oregon Department of Human Services says “correctly filed” tax returns by a child who is a dependent won’t interfere with exemptions claimed by parents or guardians.
Other people don’t file tax returns because they don’t have their tax documents readily accessible, are overwhelmed by the complexity of the tax filing process or are afraid they owe the government money.
Budler, the Bend college student, said she probably wouldn’t have submitted a 2025 tax return if it hadn’t been for one of her college advisers, who encouraged her to volunteer with VITA to help others file their taxes. She said she understands how daunting going through the filing process can be for a first timer.
“I had no idea how I was going to do it,” Budler said. “It was a very scary topic.”
So maybe you’re thinking about seizing the opportunity and filing a 2025 tax return. But maybe you’re also feeling deflated because you didn’t file tax returns in past years and you probably missed out on tax refunds.
There’s good news here, too. The IRS says you can still claim refunds for the past few years thanks to a three-year grace period. The deadline for filing your 2022 taxes—and getting a refund—is this April 15. You also are well within the grace period to file your 2023 and 2024 taxes, as well as 2025 taxes, without penalty.
In March, the IRS reminded U.S. taxpayers that about 1.3 million people nationwide and nearly 20,000 in Oregon had yet to file their 2022 taxes and claim their refunds. The refunds are averaging nearly $700.
You can get started by visiting the Oregon Department of Revenue’s or the IRS’s web pages that list free tax help options, even if it’s after April 15.
Alana Kelley, a 21-year-old senior at Oregon State University in Corvallis, has helped others prepare their taxes through VITA. She also has filled out tax returns for herself for the past several years. She said her refunds have ranged from $400 to more than $1,000—and at times, have amounted to a return of all the taxes that were withheld from her paychecks.
Kelley has been spreading the word, even though the reaction of some students is, at first, doubt.
“They’re like, ‘I only made $5,000,’” Kelley recounted.
Her response? “Well, look at your paycheck. You can see you’ve had money coming out of your account. And so you want to get that back,” said Kelley, who is student director of marketing for VITA.
This year, Kelley said her refund was $800, money she used to go to Finland with a friend over spring break last month.
“The plane tickets were a gift from my parents,” Kelley said. “But all the other expenses—train tickets, hotels, food and everything—a majority of that came from my tax refund, which was very nice. It made the trip a lot less stressful.”
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©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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