About Us

General Information

Since 1940, University of Illinois Extension has sponsored the annual Tax School. It began as a basic taxation school for teaching farmers how to prepare their own taxes. Over the years, it evolved into a professional continuing education program for income tax practitioners. Annually, approximately 6,000 tax professionals attend University of Illinois Tax Schools.

Sponsor

University of Illinois Extension and the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at Urbana-Champaign.

Tax School History

• 1940
  First schools in DeKalb and Springfield.
• 1940s
  Enrollees mostly farmers doing their own returns.
• 1950s
  Enrollees include tax practitioners-IRS agents begin to help with instruction.
• 1960s
  Schools more oriented to tax practitioners; Workbooks and other references provided annually.
• 1969
  Illinois state income tax law enacted; State Department of Revenue joins program.
• 1970s
  Attendance grew from just under 2,000 to approximately 4,000 enrollees. Basic Income Tax Preparation telenet courses were offered for the first time.
• 1980s
  Attendance grew from 4,000 to over 5,300 enrollees. Number of schools offered grew to 26. An estimated 1 million federal and .75 million state tax returns were prepared by enrollees. Specialized seminars on S-Corporations and Small Business Issues were held.
• 1990s
  Attendance grew from approximately 5,400 to over 6,200 enrollees. The number of schools grew to 31. Satellite programs were introduced in 1994 and expanded to video-Telnet programs in 1997 and 1998, serving more than 1,700 participants.
• 2000s
  Attendance remains steady at approximately 6,000 participants. Summer seminars which cover in-depth participant-requested topics were initiated in 2001. The name of the program changed from Farm Income Tax School to University of Illinois Tax School in 2003. Webinars were introduced as a delivery method for instruction in 2008.

Modified: May 19, 2009

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