As the April 15 deadline to file a federal tax return approaches, students may be surprised to discover that they can get their taxes done on campus – free of charge.
Accounting majors are offering free assistance to students and members of the community filing income tax returns, which is sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program and funded by the Cal State Long Beach chapter of Beta Alpha Psy, a national honorary accounting society, and the CSULB Accounting Society.
Operating out of room 237 in the College of Business Administration building, this year’s program has about 54 volunteers from CSULB who have been trained and certified by the IRS to prepare and e-file basic income tax returns and foreign student tax returns. VITA members can also answer many tax-related questions that students might have.
“I’ve become more familiar with the tax laws and the process,” student volunteer and senior accounting major Helen Be said. “I’m also learning how to better communicate with the people who come in and let them know what’s going on and how the different laws apply to their tax returns.”
Be said she gets immense satisfaction from being able to help questioning students.
“I’m just really happy I can help them get their tax returns done and maybe get a refund,” Be said. “The people who come in are really confused sometimes.”
The volunteers providing assistance will receive school credit as part of an internship course and are required to give four hours of their time per week.
“We do real people’s tax returns and the experience that [the volunteers] gain from this program is real,” Paula Alba, the student VITA coordinator and a junior accounting major, said. “It looks really good on their resume as well.”
Alba said the program is averaging about 10 to15 returns per day and is on course to surpass the more than 300 returns prepared in 2012.
“We expect it to get busier as the deadline gets closer,” Alba said. “Right now we’re getting a lot of non-students because it’s really early and some of the people who are coming in are those who want to get their taxes done ahead of time. Students tend to procrastinate, but I’m sure they’ll start coming in soon.”
Although the VITA program is free, not everyone qualifies to use it. The CSULB program can only assist those who made $51,000 or less in 2012. Moreover, VITA volunteers do not prepare business or itemized returns.
Those planning on having their returns prepared through the VITA program should bring proof of identification, a Social Security card, wage and earnings statements from all employers (W-2, W-2G, 1099-R) and interest and dividend statements from banks (1099 forms).
Alba also recommends bringing a copy of federal and state returns from last year, in addition to account numbers for direct deposit.
The program will continue at the university until April 9. Volunteers will prepare returns from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays.
