Spotlight: Accounting

May 1, 2024 12:00 AM

The Department of Accounting revived its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program in Spring 2024 after being on hiatus for several years. The IRS-sponsored program provides free tax return preparation to qualified individuals, typically those making less than $64,000 a year. Taxpayers got assistance with basic federal and Maryland state income tax returns from volunteer students who were trained and approved by the IRS in tax law and in maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of all taxpayer information.

The VITA program at FSU helps many under-served community members file their tax returns for free while providing high-impact experiential learning opportunities to Accounting students. The three students and their supervisor, Dr. Chelsea Schrader, helped file 36 Federal and State returns with an average refund of $1,717 for Federal and $615 for State. VITA will return in Spring 2025 with even more students and (hopefully) more community members to help!