The lengthy requests from the IRS can be daunting, especially when taxpayers don’t know what benefits they are eligible for.
To ease the process, Johnson County’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or VITA, program offers free tax preparation services to low-and moderate-income residents.
The program has been run under the county’s Social Services department for nearly 10 years. But this year, the University of Iowa’s own tax assistance program has merged with VITA.
Until April 9, both students and community volunteers will be helping residents file their taxes.
Taxpayers with an income of $67,000 or less in 2024 can have their returns completed and filed by an IRS-certified tax preparer for free, while taxpayers making less than $84,000 in 2024 can access free resources to file their taxes on their own.
Rachel Carr, social services community program manager, said the need for tax assistance in the county has grown over time.
“I would say this year we have seen a larger increase in people needing assistance,” she said. “Last year, we did over about 1,000 returns for community members. So, we’ll kind of see what we’re on track to do this year, but I’m guessing it’ll be more.”
In order to meet the county’s need for tax assistance, VITA relies on the generosity of volunteers.
“We have over 60 volunteers at this point who are willing to donate their time to help other residents of Johnson County,” she said. “Tax season goes through April, so in terms of a time commitment, it is a decent amount of time, but I think that the individuals that volunteer really find it to be a rewarding experience.”
A great deal of these volunteers are UI students.
David Stubing, VITA coordinator and associate professor of instruction in accounting, helps to organize VITA’s student volunteers.
“Most of the student volunteers are accounting majors, and we do have what’s known as a RISE requirement … So, we expect the students to have an internship or do something in the real world, and volunteering their time is one way that the students can do that,” he said.
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Stubing said the time UI Tippie College of Business students give to the VITA program helps them maximize the value of their time at the university.
“It’s more than just textbooks. You can always take a test on tax, but the way it works is, if our accounting makers work in the tax field, they have a client, the client comes in and gives them information, and then it’s up to the accountant to prepare the tax return,” he said.
Ben Hochstetler, a reviewer and TA for the VITA site at Johnson County, helps volunteers to become acclimated to the program.
Hochstetler shared a similar sentiment as Stubing regarding what students take away from the program.
“It’s good allowing the students to interact with taxpayers and have a more front-facing role than they may see in an internship,” he said. “It gets them very used to dealing with 1040s and just personal tax documents. So, it’s good for their own life as well.”
Hochstetler said the merging of the UI’s tax assistance program with VITA should be a smooth transition for students, with the only real change being scheduling volunteer hours.
“In the current year for Johnson County, there is a volunteer sign-up for a time slot like how you would schedule an interview with a company,” he said. “In years prior with the university, it was a lot more consistent week to week.”