VITA Program

What is VITA?

VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) a program of the College of Business and Public Administration at Cal State San Bernardino is sponsored by the IRS and California's Franchise Tax Board.  It provides quality tax preparation and income tax assistance to low income, elderly and disabled tax payers, free of charge, as well as a unique hands-on learning experience for Cal State San Bernardino accounting students. In the 2013 tax season, about 70 CSUSB volunteers worked more than 5,800 hours preparing nearly 1,700 tax returns, which yielded combined federal and state refunds totaling more than $1.5 million.

Why should you support the VITA Program?

The VITA program is in jeopardy due to government budget cuts. The IRS no longer is able to help fund established programs like the one at CSUSB. We work the equipment very hard and need to replace computer hardware and peripherals on a four year cycle. This consists of 70 laptop computers, 13 printers, eight scanners and 10 routers, plus operating expense and supplies adds up to $25,000 per year. This program has been in existence at CSUSB for over 30 years, at that time there was funding from the university and the state.  Over the past five years funding has diminished. To continue this excellent program community based funding is essential.