VITA Program Partnership Offers Many “Returns”

This tax season, students at the Pima Community College West Campus are partnering with United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona and the IRS to expand the reach of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

This semester, Pima students can enroll in the Basic Income Tax Preparation course (ACC160) and learn how to prepare taxes from an IRS representative. Students will learn about tax credits including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a refundable federal income tax credit for low-income working individuals and families.

The 3-credit class meets on Saturday mornings, 8:00 a.m. to noon, for three weeks. Students must pass an IRS volunteer tax preparer certification exam and perform a minimum of 18 service learning hours at a VITA site to successfully complete the course. In addition to earning college credit, Pima students will gain practical work experience and help local low- and moderate-income working families and individuals keep more of what they earn.

This program connects well with Pima Community College’s Community-Based/Service Learning Initiative, a program that emphasizes community service learning. The program encourages students to learn and develop through active participation in projects that meet actual community needs. The projects are intended to help students understand how their classroom learning can be applied in real-life contexts.

With the economy pushing many southern Arizona families into financial crisis, we need to ensure that people have the information and assistance needed to access EITC and use it to build savings and financial security. Census data shows that EITC lifts more children out of poverty than any other single program or category of programs.

United Way is very excited about this course offering and for the help Pima students will provide to the VITA program.

Pima students, click here to read more about the Basic Income Tax Preparation class:
http://tr.im/vitaclass

Class description from PCC Website
ACC160: Basic Income Tax Preparation

Basic skills in tax preparation. Includes volunteer assistance techniques and procedures; taxable revenues, expenses, and appropriate line items on various forms; completion and discussion of tax returns with clients; additional federal tax issues and forms on individual tax returns; and training in current tax preparation software.

Prerequisite(s): ACC 101.
Course Corequisites:
Information: Students must pass an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) volunteer tax preparer certification exam and perform a minimum of 18 service learning hours at a community VITA site to successfully complete this course.
Information: May be taken four times for a maximum of twelve credit hours.