Issue date: 2/26/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Brennan Angel [Click to enlarge]

Free income tax preparation prepared by Cal Poly business accounting students, faculty and community certified public accountants continues this month through the Orfalea College of Business educational and community program Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA).

The program aims to give students vital learning experience while helping the community. VITA provides its services only to community members who are unable to pay for tax services, non-English speakers, the elderly, the disabled and those with a low income (under $40,000).

"(The program) is for people who cannot generally afford tax assistance," said business administration junior Mark Skeehan.

The program is run nationally and sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service. Cal Poly's program receives additional sponsorship from the Cal Poly business department and the California Franchise Tax Board.

VITA was established more than 30 years ago and has been present at Cal Poly for 15 years.

At Cal Poly, VITA is run as a business course, which requires many prerequisites before students can participate. The class is only offered during winter quarter, when most people are preparing for tax season.

More than 90 students are involved in the program, and all of them receive senior project credits for their involvement, said Norinne Morris, the administrative assistant for the accounting concentration.

Business senior Michael Bonfante said that not only does the program give him the necessary senior project credits but also allows him to figure out what he wants to do after he graduates.

"It's given me a better understanding of the process of preparing returns," Bonfante said.

Janice Carr, a business professor and VITA program coordinator has been running the program since its start at Cal Poly. She said the program has been a huge success at Cal Poly because students are not only practicing what they have learned in classes, but they are gaining self-confidence in communication and their tax skills as well.

"Students work in pairs and change partners every week. We (the faculty) are there to help students if they have questions, but we do not deal with clients," Carr said.

Continued...

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