Division of Business

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA)

Front row: Lasha Carson, Afton Powell, Christine Baldwin, Amanda Booth, Jamie Mitchell, Erin McCauley, Brandon Breeze, Maggie Gilmore (Instructor). Back row: Bob Osborne (VITA Site/Program Coordinator), David Jenkins, Dale (Chip) Bailey, Thomas Hoffman, Anthony Labry, Kurtis Goff, Donald Rizek. Not Pictured: Bryan Adkinson and Robert Selikson

Puzzled by the tax law or which credits and deductions to take? Need assistance with your tax return?

You may want to visit the Ohio Dominican University (ODU) Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site. The IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program offers free tax assistance if you qualify. Each Spring ODU’s VITA Program will offer free tax preparation assistance for qualifying individuals.

VITA offers free tax help to people of low-to moderate-income (generally $40,000 and below).In addition to free tax return preparation assistance, our VITA site also offers free electronic filing (e-filing). Individuals taking advantage of the e-file program will receive their refunds in half the time compared to returns filed on paper – even faster if you have your refund deposited directly into your bank account.

Training

Through this innovative and successful program, ODU Accounting Students trained by the IRS and ODU Faculty can help you with special credits, such as Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Child Tax Credit, and Credit for the Elderly for which you may qualify.

Students perform their work under the supervision of Accounting Instructor Maggie Gilmore, CPA and Assistant Professor Robert Osborne, CPA. Students are certified by the Internal Revenue Service to be IRS VITA tax preparers.

VITA Students will prepare the following tax forms:

• Form 104EZ
• Form 1040A with Schedules 1, 2, 3 and EIC
• Form 1040 with Schedules A, B, C-EZ, D, EIC, R and SE
• Form 1040-V
• Form 1040-ES
• Form 2441 (Child and Dependent Care Credit)
• Form 8812 (Additional Child Tax Credit)
• Form 8863 (Education Credits)

Preparation includes federal, state and local returns if required.

Quality goes in to each tax return prepared. Quality of the VITA program is measured by IRS visits (inspections) to the VITA sites, error rates on tax returns prepared and client surveys. Results of the IRS visits to the ODU VITA site were “excellent” and ODU students had no unresolved errors for the tax returns prepared.

Feedback from the tax clients in the community we service rated our program as “excellent”. Each client is asked to complete a survey. The survey instrument was developed and results compiled by an outside agency. Results of the survey show that 100% of the ODU VITA site clients would recommend our service to others and 100% would come back next year. Each student in the program was delighted they participated.

Key points

• Spring 2008 VITA Class consisted of 15 students and prepared 155 tax returns for 2007, $52,885 in Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and $119,304 in Federal Refunds. The class also processed 6 tax returns for prior year 2006
• Spring 2007 VITA Class consisted of 12 students and prepared 139 tax returns for 2006, $24,867 in Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)

Links

• ODU Accounting Major web page
• Business EDGE – The official newsletter of Division of Business
• Internal Revenue Service (www.IRS.Gov)

VITA Instructors

Robert Osborne, Assistant Professor of Accounting & VITA Site Program Coordinator, (614) 251-4261 or email osborne@ohiodominican.edu
Maggie Gilmore, Accounting Instructor, email gilmorem@ohiodominican.edu