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VITA program expands yearly The IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at Florida International University continues to give more students the opportunity to apply hard-won skills to doing tax returns for low-income earners, while area residents get expert aid in navigating the challenge of preparing a tax return.
David Lavin, associate professor of accounting, continues to conduct the training, which takes place over a period of six to eight Sunday afternoons in the winter. Dedicated students from prior groups, which included fifty students in 2003 and ninety in 2004, also helped with the training. Navarro's Pharmacy on SW 8th Street and 122nd Avenue, the Orange Bowl, and locations in the Corpus Cristi area in Miami were among the sites at which the VITA volunteers worked this year. VITA is part of the College's Civic Engagement Initiative, which creates and supports projects that help students experience the importance of service and community leadership. More information about both the Civic Engagement Initiative and VITA is available at http://business.fiu.edu/service/index.htm.
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The number of students participating in VITA reached 95 this year. After hours of rigorous training-on the software program TaxWise and on the rules for filing forms-the students worked at least twenty hours in the community doing returns for taxpayers. 