Nathan Buschmann, a Lakeshore Technical College accounting program student participating in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, assists client Caroline Gotchy with preparing and filing her 2020 taxes.
The tax filing deadline may have been postponed, but that doesn’t end the need for help getting the job done. Thousands of local income-eligible residents have depended upon the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or VITA, program in the past for such help, which has involved accounting students at Lakeshore Technical College since 2005. And when the college found out late last year that most other local VITA partners were sitting out this time around, the LTC VITA team rallied and began planning for its program.
LTC Dean of Business, Technology and Hospitality, Douglas Hamm, said the plan was devised following the most recent CDC guidelines in order to continue serving the community while COVID continues to be a frontline issue. That resulted in an appointment schedule based on the number of students in the Applied Tax Course, in this case, 21 in all, and so far the team has prepared over 127 returns, generating over $200,000 in federal and state refunds. Hamm expects that over 500 volunteer student hours will be spent by the end of the season on some 148 returns, which are prepared free of charge, and no tips or gifts are accepted by the students.
Those wishing to check out the program and their eligibility for help can visit here.
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