Filing taxes can be a stressful task, full of questions about which form and schedule to use and determining what to report and where.
With the intent of helping members of the community in need of tax assistance, 91ֿ’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program offers free income tax preparation services for low-income and elderly taxpayers.
The program also benefits 91ֿ accounting students, giving them hands-on experience with tax preparation services and providing opportunities to interact professionally with taxpayers. In addition to the experience, the students can get credit hours for volunteering in the program.
Kayla Nagle and Mia Blackburn, accounting seniors, took part in this year’s VITA program. They said it was a great opportunity to get hands-on experience, apply what they learned in class and learn more about international tax treaties and benefits.
“I was actually very nervous to do it because we're doing people's tax returns,” Blackburn said. “I was afraid to mess it up, but then I felt comfortable doing people’s tax returns because it's set up to be reviewed multiple times."
In addition to gaining knowledge and confidence with tax returns, both students shared that their favorite thing about VITA was interacting with the taxpayers and their colleagues volunteering at the program.
“I honestly thought we would be on our own a lot, but we really were not,” Blackburn said. “I was always talking with another student or with Mindy, our coordinator. I love that I just learned so much from other people.”
Mindy Nett, CPA, associate professor and program coordinator in the Department of Accounting, works with Paula DiVencenzo, tax manager at 91ֿ, to run the program. DiVencenzo started the VITA program at 91ֿ in 2011.
“We have always solicited student volunteers because there’s a lot of work to do, and every tax return requires two levels – preparing and reviewing – and those have to be different people based on the protocols that are set in the standards,” Nett said.
To be part of the program, students are required to take four certification exams that meet the standards required by the IRS, and the students must have completed the Income Taxation I - Individual Taxation class.
Nett said the biggest change in the program since its inception has been expanding the scope to include international students, which requires a different certification.
“This year we did over 500 tax returns, so we’re significantly increasing the number of students taking the course,” Nett said.
VITA's collaborative and interactive experience is what made this experience more valuable to them.
“I learned that tax can be a collaborative experience,” Nagle said. “You get to really talk to other people and meet with my colleagues and do it all together, which was really cool to see that side of it.”
Both students said volunteering with VITA will help them in their future careers by the experience gained with tax returns and by learning how to interact with the taxpayers to reduce their nervousness and stress regarding filing taxes.
“If there’s VITA next year, everyone should come do it,” Nagle said. If you’re an accounting student, you should come do VITA as a volunteer or as an elective.”