VITA Program in Income Tax Accounting

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VITA Program in Income Tax Accounting

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance commonly known as VITA is a kind of program which is provided by the Internal Revenue Service widely known as IRS in the form of service to low as well as medium income taxpayers. The work of Internal Revenue Service is just to coordinate the service it provides to the small to medium income taxpayers while the volunteers who take part in delivering this services fill all the positions of staff which are available at the sites of tax preparation under community level. Interestingly, the places where the volunteers fill are entirely unpaid. However, most of this positions require high management experience and also the volunteers must have certificates to show that they are professionals to fill those posts so that they can be allowed to assume their positions. This easy will consider more on the working and services in tax preparation sites provided by the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance in income tax accounting at the community level (Aldridge et al. 2015).

The service which Internal Revenue Service provides to members of a particular community is meant to assist anyone who does not understand his or her tax returns. The volunteers explain systematically to the members so that they know their returns. Additionally, the volunteers who are chosen to provide services on behalf of Internal Revenue Service in tax preparation sites translates the documents of tax returns to a language which the members of different communities understand (Apostolou, et al. 2017). Moreover, the volunteers provide other services such as counseling the elderly through a program called Tax Counseling for the Elderly which is commonly known as TCE. Tax Counseling for the Elderly also provides any assistance which members of a specific community might have for free as well as e-filling documents of tax returns on behalf of the society.

The positions which volunteers fill includes translator, tax preparer, reviewer, technical support specialist, tax coach as well as site coordinator. This programs, however, requires a lot of volunteers to take part in providing the services to all the people who need assistance every year; hence faces a lot of challenge in getting volunteers to fill all the posts bearing in mind that the volunteers are not paid. The volunteers who are involved in the process share their talents and spare their time with the members of different communities without been paid, but they view the benefits which they archive after helping the community as undoubtedly worth more than the effort. Some of the requirements to qualify for tax assistance which is offered for free includes the person being assisted must speak limited English and also have a document to show that they are disabled in case of any claim of body disable. The people who more so benefit from the free tax assistance includes the immigrants who require their tax returns to be interpreted into their native languages and the disabled taxpayers (Blanthorne & Westin, 2015).

The primary goal of free tax assistance is to increase the accuracy of tax returns. Additionally, when the taxpayers are assisted such immigrants who due to language barrier are unable to earn high incomes who in return receive more incomes when supported; in return increases the amount of tax collected by the state. Furthermore, the programs ensure tax fillings is done through electronic means is much cheaper as well as efficient as compared to the paper filing. The programs of assisting the taxpayers who require assistance also streamline the administrative posts (Christensen & Woodland, 2015).

As discussed above, Internal Revenue Authority which is a government agency and not a business saves money through not paying the volunteers hence saves the money which is paid by taxpayers as a result allocating the money to other development projects. Accordingly, it is essential for every state to make such programs available to the economically disadvantaged people, those who are elderly, disabled as well as the immigrants to enhance efficient tax paying by all people.

Reference.

Aldridge, R., Callahan, R. A., Chen, Y., & Wade, S. R. (2015). Income tax preparation assistance service learning program: A multidimensional assessment. Journal of Education for Business, 90(6), 287-295.

Apostolou, B., Dorminey, J. W., Hassell, J. M., & Rebele, J. E. (2017). Accounting education literature review (2016). Journal of Accounting Education, 39, 1-31.

Blanthorne, C., & Westin, S. (2015). VITA: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature and an Analysis of the Program in Accounting Education in the US. Issues in Accounting Education, 31(1), 51-69.

Christensen, A. L., & Woodland, A. M. (2015). Is participation in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program associated with students’ problem-solving skills and professional commitment?. Issues in Accounting Education, 31(1), 71-90.