Milligan College is starting up their Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program for the 11th year in a row. The program, also known as VITA, occurs once a month from February to April.
Started in 2008 by a former Milligan faculty member, VITA is designed to help students learn about tax law. The students then take what they learn and file taxes for people in the community.
“Tax law is over 75,000 pages long,” VITA Director and Instructor of Business Administration Heather Vaccaro said. “We can’t teach the students everything, but we can teach them the basics.”
VITA is designed to help citizens in the community who make under $64,000 a year–people who cannot afford an accountant or do not have the resources to do the taxes themselves.
“We can help almost anyone,” Michaela Wolfe said. The senior applied finance and accounting major and a second-year student with the VITA program added that the exceptions are widowers and people who own rental property.
VITA helps the community in many ways, and it also helps students. Some of the goals of VITA are to receive a transferable skill, to gain valuable experience and for students to learn about taxes.
“One of our primary goals is to maintain quality,” David Campbell, general secretary of the VITA program and associate professor of economics David Campbell said. “We try to get around 200 returns done instead of a huge number of returns.”
VITA is not just for business majors. Any one from any major can do the program for one to three hours of credit.
“I think it is a must for all business majors,” former VITA student senior Andre Palpant said. “For non-business majors, it is a good life skill.”
Palpant did the VITA program for two years and now does his own taxes.
Students also learn interview skills by interacting with members of the community.
“VITA teaches good life skills,” Wolfe said. “You have to handle other people’s personal information, which can be difficult.”
VITA is full this semester, but for those who need help in the future, people can sign up on Milligan’s website.
Students take three training courses before working with the community; they work with the community based on how many credit hours they take. One credit hour equals one Saturday spent doing the community’s taxes.
This year’s VITA dates are Feb. 17, March 17 and April 7, all from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.