Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program

VITA volunteers help low-income people prepare their tax returns at a VITA site. For information about the VITA program, visit CSM's VITA page and the IRS VITA page.

The VITA class is for students who are:

• Considering tax preparation as a career, who would like a short course and hands-on experience to see if they like it
• Committed to tax preparation as a career, and would like additional training and experience to strengthen their resume.

No previous tax experience is required to enroll in the VITA class. If you are interested in a career as a tax preparer, please see our tax preparer certificates.  

In ACTG 175, the VITA Training class at College of San Mateo, you will learn how to:

• Prepare a basic Federal and California individual income tax return
• Calculate the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Child Tax Credit, Child and Dependent Care Credit, and basic deductions and adjustments
• Determine filing status and dependency exemptions
• Use TaxWise software

After completing the tax law portion of the course, students are required to participate at the CSM VITA site for 24 hours. You will prepare returns for students and community members during February, March, and April.

Students will earn 2.5 units of college credit for their volunteer service by enrolling in ACTG 175. CSM offers the VITA training class during four Saturdays in January. The VITA class enrollment is limited to 35 students and the class always fills quickly. Please enroll early. If the class is full when you register, you can sign up for the wait list or arrive early at the first class meeting to see if space is available to add the class.

Class procedures

• The class starts on time. You must be on time each day. Please arrive 10 minutes early to each class meeting.
• There are four tax law training sessions and you must attend the full session each day.

If you are interested in learning to prepare individual tax returns, but you do not want to volunteer at a VITA site, please enroll in ACTG 181, Taxation of Individuals Using Tax Software. The VITA class is only for people who will participate for at least 24 hours at the CSM VITA site.