Students seeking free tax help can find it from accounting students on the UW-Whitewater campus.

A Volunteer Income Tax Assistance clinic will be held every Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through April 10 in Hyland Hall 1001.

VITA is a program of the Internal Revenue Service designed to assist indviduals who make less than $50,000 in the filing of their income taxes. VITA’s IRS-certified volunteer preparers provide basic income tax preparation at no cost to taxpayers who qualify for the program.

At UW-Whitewater, VITA clinics are held in association with Accounting 455, an upper level accounting course overseen by Lecturer Michael MacDonald. Students enrolled in the course act as the volunteer preparers.

“All of these [students] are regarded by the Internal Revenue Service as qualified preparers,” MacDonald said.  “They’ve gone through the pain of completing 20-30 hours of online training sponsored by the IRS.”

While VITA also exists outside of college campuses, it’s incorporated into a course offered by the accounting department so students are able to receive firsthand experience they would otherwise not receive within the university setting.

“Students who participate get the experience of preparing Wisconsin state income tax returns and using the same software used in private [accounting] practices,” MacDonald said. “This is experience they don’t get in Tax I.”

Several of the student preparers who plan to use their skills as tax preparers after graduation have already begun to realize the benefits of their experience as VITA volunteers.

“It’s very beneficial,” student VITA preparer Sarah Dorner said. “You get hands on experience with actual tax returns and clients.”