Income Tax Assistance

QCC is offering the VITA service opportunity as a regular class (4 Credits) class. QCC Students obtain a regular grade, which counts towards their GPA and can use financial aid to pay for the class. The class is “ACC 225 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance”. This class is open to students from any major, as a free elective or a business elective for business majors. Students who wish to take this class must register for it, as they do for regular classes. To become an IRS-certified volunteer under the VITA program, students must attend training sessions (in-class) during the first two weeks of classes at QCC main Campus and then complete weekly sessions of free tax preparation service at a local VITA site(off campus). The VITA site is open from February to April. All QCC Students who complete this class must attend a recognition ceremony at the end of the tax season.

Students can also volunteer and get college credit through the career office if they are current QCC students. Students must complete a portfolio assessment at the end of the tax season and pay a fee (No financial aid available) to get a four-credit class that counts as a business elective class for Business Majors or a free elective class for other majors. Students obtain a Pass/Fail grade, which does not count toward their GPA. The class is listed as ACC288 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance on their transcripts. Students interested in this prior learning opportunity option must first inform the program coordinator and then meet with a representative from the QCC career office. Students must also take the certification tests to become IRS-certified as tax preparers. Students must volunteer at least 40 hours at the off-campus tax preparation site and attend a recognition ceremony.

Honors by Contract is an agreement between an honors student, QCC faculty member, and Honors Program coordinator. The contract is designed to supplement a non-honors course by involving the student in the VITA program to receive honors credit for a course the student has already taken or is currently taking at QCC. The honors student must complete at least 40 service hours at the VITA site.

Individuals can complete the service as a volunteer. The site counts on the support of volunteers from different organizations and colleges in the area every year. The Volunteers will select the days they want to volunteer. 

Our QCC students and volunteers prepare basic tax returns. To be eligible to have your taxes done by our participants, you must have an income of $60,000 or less in the tax year being filed. Because we take our commitment to preparing accurate returns seriously, we do not prepare returns outside our prescribed scope.