Student volunteers from the SF State Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program have done an outstanding job in preparing tax returns for free for low income members of the community for the 2010 tax year.

This year, the volunteers completed 1,351 tax returns for individuals and families, submitting 1,160 of them via E-file and having a 97.45% acceptance rate of their filings by the IRS! The team secured $1,115,572 of federal refunds for the taxpayers.

VITA is an Internal Revenue Service program that provides free assistance to low-income, elderly, limited English-proficient and disabled individuals who require assistance in preparing their tax returns and cannot afford the services of a paid professional tax preparer. The service was available this spring for those with an annual household income of less than $49,000.

SF State's VITA program is run by the students of Beta Alpha Psi, an honors organization for students in finance and accounting. Volunteers are solicited from across  the university; one need not be a business major to participate. The program provides student volunteers with valuable experience outside the classroom. Student volunteers receive free training from the IRS for preparing taxes and tips for interacting with tax clients. Each January, students give up part of their break to attend a 3-day IRS training session. They then take a test administered by the IRS to become certified to prepare and file taxes in the VITA program.