UCLA volunteers offer tax help
By Genie Song
April 8, 2004 9:00 p.m.
For all the last-minute tax return filers in the UCLA community,
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance is here to help.
VITA is a student-coordinated program, in conjunction with the
IRS, that is designed to help UCLA students, faculty or local
residents properly prepare their annual federal and state income
tax returns, free of charge.
“I know how frustrating and complicated it can be for
people to do their taxes,” said Henry Lin, fourth- year
business economics student and one of the seven coordinators of
UCLA VITA. “We’re here to help.”
VITA is a non-profit organization run by about 100 IRS-trained,
certified volunteers.
According to Terry Chen, a fourth-year biology student, and
another student coordinator, all volunteers have received about 10
hours of training from CPAs and auditors from the IRS.
“All student volunteers attended classes during winter
quarter taught by IRS volunteers,” Chen said, adding that
everyone had to pass a test given at the end of their training to
become qualified.
VITA starts recruiting for new volunteers second week of winter
quarter in conjunction with the economics department using
advertisements and flyers on Bruin Walk.
Coordinators visit economics and accounting classes to make
announcements to students and the economics department sends out an
all-department e-mail about the program.
“I have done other volunteer work before, but nothing like
this,” said Lin, who first heard about VITA in an economics
class. “I think it is a really unique opportunity for
students.”
The hands-on experience volunteers gain from VITA initially
attracts many students, but about half of them drop out because
they cannot make the time commitment.
“We usually have around 200 people attend our information
session but we end up with about 100 volunteers in the end,”
Chen said, adding that anyone is welcome to become a volunteer as
long as they complete all the training and do at least eight hours
of actual volunteering.
Since VITA is considered an on-campus student organization, it
does receive funding from UCLA but volunteers also look to private
businesses for donations to use on recruitment, supplies and
advertisement, which some people feel could be improved.
“I think it is too bad more students don’t know
about (VITA),” said Yanni Afendoulis, an ethnomusicology and
history student, who has been using the services for the past 2-3
years. “When I talk to other students about VITA, most of
them don’t even know it exists.”
Other than its weak publicity, Afendoulis is completely
satisfied with the service VITA provides.
“I used to go to H&R Block before and pay for them to
do my taxes,” Afendoulis said. “I think these
volunteers are great and I’ve been happy with their work
every single time.”
VITA is entirely student-run. Its services will be available in
Ackerman 3517 today and next week until Thursday from noon to 6
p.m.
