[irishA]

Does anyone have any experience with Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA). I am definitely not a tax person, but have considered doing this as a volunteer/community service thing this year in my spare time. I’ve passed the CPA exam, but haven’t gotten licensed yet, and finishing my last semester of my Master’s in Accounting.

I assume the taxes that would need to prepared would be low income 1040s without too much craziness. So even without the tax experience should be able to handle it with only academic knowledge.

[DDylan]

lol. They are not necessarily as easy as you would think. Unless you want to put this experience on your resume, I would not go…

but you will get a certificate from local IRS for VITA experience. I did VITA a few years ago, but I did not do anything, just sitting there and being an idiot, nobody came for tax help…

[irishA]

Thanks. My resume is missing a volunteer/community service section, thought it would be good start to round it out. Just found the library down the street did it. Like I said my only “tax experience” is passing REG and graduate school, but then my sister worked at H&R Block one season a few years ago doing simple returns; and she only had a BS in Religious Studies and no Accounting experience. So, wasn't sure how bad I'd be.

[DDylan]

VITA would not carry too much weight on your resume TBH. Listing vita on resume is more for ppl who are lack of any experience.

It's not hard at all. It's more of “messy”, based on stories heard from classmates back then.

But anyway, looks like its right down the street, you can give it a shot. If you like it, good. If you do not like it, then go. There is no commitment if I remember correctly.

[ihopeipassed]

I did VITA for course credit when I was an undergraduate. The returns were not hard at all, and a lot of people did come in for help. When I did it, we had accounting professors help us with returns if we didn't know how to do them. Overall, I think it was a rewarding experience and plenty of people asked me about it during my interviews.

[irishA]

I don't believe there is a commitment. The library is only about a mile away, so I can send them an email this week see how it works. I currently do compliance audits, and don't plan on making a change so not too worried about tax experience. Just Q1 is our slowest time of year, so might as well try and keep busy and might be nice to do some volunteering.

[Author]

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