What is VITA?

Hands-on training from tax preparation experts

There is no better teacher than real-world experience. By preparing taxes for individuals, you’ll be exposed to topics that before had just been a bullet point in a textbook. In addition, professional tax preparers and CPAs will be available to assist you with complex questions. Interning with a large firm offers many advantages, but being part of a smaller team provides greater opportunities to be relied on and helps build your confidence.

Many VITA locations are supervised by CPAs, so joining the program is a great way to network with professional CPAs. Taking this opportunity could even result in additional internship accessibility down the road.

Tax preparation experience to boost your resume

Adding additional content to your resume is always valuable–especially when that experience comes from a known name. VITA is a well-known program, and many CPAs have worked with the program in the past. This means the program carries good name recognition and can add a bit of weight to the otherwise limited experience most students start with.

Talking points for interviews

Your accounting interview will obviously have a fair share of questions. Many of those questions may be focused on accounting topics, but some will involve your communication skills and personal responsibility. Having accounting experience outside the classroom allows you to diversify your responses.

Your experience with VITA can provide answers to these common interview questions:

• Describe a time when you had to work hard to provide great service to a customer or client. What did you do and what was the outcome?
• Describe a time when you had to explain an accounting issue to someone without an accounting back ground. How did you help your audience understand the situation?
• Describe a time you’ve made an accounting error and how you handled it.

In addition, because VITA is such a well-known program, there is a chance your interviewer will have first-hand experience in the program. This shared experience can be a great way to connect and stand out from the competition.

Communication and people skills

Communication skills are an extremely important skill for all accountants. Whether it is trying to explain an accounting topic to a non-accounting peer or presenting your findings to a client, you’ll need to be good at working with a wide variety of people. VITA gives you the opportunity to work with many different clients and coworkers.

For instance, most of your clients will know very little about taxes, so you’ll get practice explaining topics in layman’s terms. Because they don’t know much about taxes, you will also learn how to extract information from context and conversation. These same skills will become very important when conducting audits in the future.

Academic credit or CPA work experience

Some colleges and universities offer academic credit for the VITA program. This is a very useful way to boost your GPA while gaining work experience. Be sure to check with your academic advisor to ask about any possible credit you could receive for volunteering with VITA.

If you do not receive academic credit, your experience could count toward the CPA credential’s work experience requirement. For the experience to count, it will need to be signed off by a licensed CPA. Some states also require that your experience be supervised by a CPA, so be sure to confirm all requirements with your state board.

Volunteer experience

In addition to the positive experience of giving back to your community, volunteer experience is often required by many ethics courses. Working with VITA is a great way to earn those volunteer hours while also advancing your career.

NOTE: Volunteer experience is always a nice boost to your resume. Just keep in mind, you shouldn’t list VITA work under both volunteer experience and work experience. Judge your resume and your needs to determine what category would be best suited for this experience.

Continuing education credit

Enrolled agents and non-certified tax return preparers can earn continuing education credits. This is only applicable if they are volunteering as a VITA/TCE instructor, quality reviewer, or tax return preparer.

Certification exam preparation

Completing the IRS’s tax training will also help prepare you for some of the accounting certification exams. Specifically, your experience and exams will assist in preparing you for the Enrolled Agent exams and for REG section of the CPA Exam.

VITA does not have any education or work experience requirements. To volunteer for VITA, you will need to take an introductory course and pass one or more exams.

Each exam you pass expands the types of returns you’ll be able to complete.
There are nine exams you may take:

1. Basic: Wage-earner type returns—includes Social Security income and early withdrawal of savings penalty.
2. Advanced: Full scope of returns—includes capital gains and losses.
3. Puerto Rico: Returns for U.S. citizens who are bona fide residents of Puerto Rico.
4. Foreign Students and Scholars: Returns for international students and scholars.
5. Military: Returns presented by members of the Armed Forces, Reserve, and National Guard. This exam requires completion of the Advanced exam. The International exam is required for overseas military personnel.
6. International: Returns for taxpayers living outside the United States. This exam requires completion of the Advanced exam.
7. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs): Covers who is eligible for a Health Savings Account and the tax treatments of HSA contributions and distributions.
8. Cancellation of Debt (COD): Covers when you can help taxpayers who have a canceled debt and when you must refer them elsewhere for help with their tax returns. This exam requires completion of the Advanced, Military or International exam.
9. Circular 230 Federal Tax Law Updated Test: Covers new provisions and tax law changes. Requires a professional designation of attorney, enrolled agent, or certified public accountant.

Running a free tax service requires many different types of people. As a result, VITA locations have different roles for volunteers. For most accounting students and entry-level professionals, the roles of Tax Preparer, Quality Reviewer, and Tax Coach will provide the most value. The Greeter, Interpreter, and Site Administrator positions are useful for developing the soft skills you’ll need for networking, interviews, and client services.

NOTE: Some positions won’t give you accounting experience but can be useful to get your feet wet while you pass the IRS’s open-book exams.

Contact your local VITA location

If you’d like to discuss your options for volunteering, you can reach out to your local VITA location. Contacting your local VITA location may help accelerate your on-boarding and provides an opportunity to ask additional questions, such as when they conduct training.

To find your local VITA location, use the IRS’s VITA/TCE finder tool.