Students in Oswego State’s MBA program are volunteering their time to do income tax reports free of charge for both students and members of the Oswego community.
For more than 10 years the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, has been a part of the Oswego State campus.
According to the IRS website, “The VITA program offers free tax help to people who generally make $54,000 or less, persons with disabilities and limited English speaking taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns.”
In Oswego, the VITA program is set to assist both students who are new to doing taxes on their own as well as community members.
“I got involved with the program through Beta Alpha Psi, [the International Honor Organization for Financial Information Students and Professionals] that’s our accounting honor society,” said Jonathan Daley, a graduate student and VITA coordinator.
Daley said he hopes to go into accounting, earn his CPA and use his experience at VITA as a stepping stone to gain experience, in addition to giving back to the community.
“Being a CPA, you need to know taxes as well,” Daley said. “Ultimately, you’re doing what every accountant has to do, meeting with people. “You become very personable and you get a lot of the real world knowledge that you don’t get from a textbook.”
According to an Oswego State press release from the Office of Communications and Marketing, the Oswego VITA program received a score of 100 percent on the quality site requirements in its IRS field audit.
“We send all our forms we prepare to the IRS electronically and then they’ll get back to us if they have any questions for us, or if they reject our returns, saying there’s a problem with them and we fix it and send it back to them,” said Kevin Kania the on-site VITA program coordinator. “I’m pretty sure last year we had over a 99 percent approval rating, which means over 99 percent of the returns we prepare were accepted by the IRS, which means we did them correctly and there were no issues or questions for us.”
For those bringing their taxes to the volunteers, the process is mostly electronic.
“So what we do is we set up a bunch of computers, we have a bunch of students who are trained through the IRS, and we’re IRS certified, so we’re allowed to do this for free, and the students get a lot of good experience,” Kania said. The VITA program helps taxpayers get their taxes done for free, while giving students real world experience, Daley noted.
In the City of Oswego, the median household income was $39,632 in 2015, according to city data meaning many residents fit the requirement for VITA’s minimum income, bringing in many tax forms for students to file.
“Last year we performed over 400 returns and this year we’re on track to get over 400 returns throughout the whole semester,” Kania said.
The tax program runs through April 11. Tax day is April 18. The program can be found in Fulton on Tuesdays, at the Oswego Hamilton Homes on Thursdays and in Rich Hall on Oswego State’s campus on Saturdays.
