Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is an IRS-sponsored program that provides free, on-campus tax return assistance to eligible individuals and families each Spring semester. To be eligible your household income must comply with IRS household income eligibility. You must be filing a US resident tax return and you must be able to show appropriate identification for all members of your household.
About VITA
VITA @ UMBC began in 2016 and offers free tax return preparation assistance to households meeting IRS income eligibility. We are able to do so because of the students who volunteer each year to help. Students go through 15 hours of intensive training and pass an IRS mandated test to prove their proficiency in the material. The students then volunteer 30 to 120 hours during the spring semester helping Baltimore area clients. In addition to the students, a small number of local community members and UMBC staff volunteer to advise the program and their mentorship of the student volunteers is another reason the program succeeds.
Leadership Team for Tax Year 2024:
Riaz Chaudry, Student Site Coordinator and President
Andrew Dymanis, Student Assistant Site Coordinator and Vice President
Rebecca Benitez, Secretary
Dami Ibojo, Treasurer
Trisha Wells, Advisor and IRS designated Site Coordinator
Jeremy Matthews, Advisor and Tax Trainer
Tax Year 2024 Results:
UMBC VITA had an outstanding tax season. One of the student leadership goals was to significantly increase our student volunteer numbers and hours. To accomplish this, they spent countless hours during the fall semester staffing recruitment tables at campus events, sending communications to faculty, and visiting classrooms to announce the opportunity. They recruited 40 student volunteers; that’s a 120% increase over last year’s 18 student volunteers! Total hours volunteered was 3853 hours and that is a big increase over the 2330 hours in the previous year. We actually had to turn away volunteers because our space wasn’t big enough to accommodate any more work stations.
As we had so many volunteers, we were able to significantly increase our client numbers as well.
Statistics from the season:
Returns File (Accepted & Paper): 510
Total Refunds, All Years: $904,929
Total 2024 Fed EITC: $186,137
Total 2024 Child Tax Credit: $108,613
Total 2024 Education Credit: $23,752
Tax prep fees saved: $89,760 (assumes $176 as average tax prep fee)
Average AGI: $34,449
Digital Badges Awarded: 29
The previous year our total returns filed was 351 so the additional volunteers made an enormous impact on what we could accomplish.
Even more amazing is that our average client AGI was $34,449 which shows we are serving community members who really need to receive free and accurate tax preparation.
The $7000 that PNC generously provided to support VITA was put to good use. All of it was used to compensate the student leaders. Without compensation, they would not be able to commit the hours needed to lead the VITA program as they wouldn’t be able to hold a part time job at the same time. They are the reason UMBC VITA is successful and these funds make their service possible.
One additional exceptional outcome this year is that UMBC hosted the Baltimore area tax season kick off in partnership with the CASH Campaign of Maryland. We were thrilled to host Governor Wes Moore, Congressman Johnny Olszewski, Comptroller Brooke Lierman, County Executive Kathy Klausmeier and UMBC President Valerie Sheares-Ashby. It was a special event and we loved being able to highlight both our work and the UMBC campus.
UMBC VITA Badge
All students who pass the IRS certification with a score of 80% or more and volunteer at least 25 hours will earn a FinancialSmarts Badge from UMBC. The badge can be prominently displayed in myUMBC and social media accounts…such as Facebook and LinkedIn.