John Cooper, assistant professor of accounting
and director of the VITA program
California State University, Los Angeles
In 2019, VITA expanded its roots to collaborate with four other California State University campuses, as well as six LA-based community colleges, to create the CSU5 Plus Collaboration. Since its inception, the collaboration between CSUN and its sister campuses across California have served thousands of low-income taxpayers in every corner of Los Angeles with free tax preparation services.
However, in early March 2020, COVID-19 changed the entire landscape of tax preparation as in-person contact became neither possible nor safe. Many of CSUN’s sister CSUs had to shut down their clinics and later reopen through a digital platform, though unfortunately, many couldn’t reopen at all. As large as this hurdle was, CSUs such as CSU Los Angeles (CSULA), CSU Long Beach (CSULB) and CSU Cal Poly Pomona returned this year by implementing a digital space into their tax preparation to keep their local community safe as they file their taxes for 2020.
“Our VITA program was unexpectedly shut down in March of 2020,” said John Cooper, assistant professor in accounting at CSULA. “This abruptly ended our tax preparation services for that season. Recognizing that COVID could affect our 2021 tax season, we began exploring alternative approaches during summer of 2020.”
Mohamed Gomaa, associate professor
of accounting, and director of the VITA
program, Cal Poly Pomona
By implementing a digital space for taxpayers to use, safety concerns surrounding COVID-19 became easier to manage; however, as a consequence, digital safety proved to be an entirely different issue. To protect individuals’ tax data, a special HIPPA-certified computer program is used to safely upload tax documents.
Each VITA clinic in CSULA, CSULB and Cal Poly Pomona is largely run by student workers who help prepare and file taxpayers’ returns. Students can use their time in VITA as a way to gain both college-course credit and realworld career experience.
“The [VITA] program is a win-win for students and taxpayers,” said Mohamed Gomaa, associate professor and the director of the VITA program for Cal Poly Pomona. “We’re trying to teach student volunteers interpersonal skills that they can use in their respective careers.”
Moving to an all digital space not only kept taxpayers safe from the dangers surrounding COVID-19, but it also created an interesting opportunity for VITA clinics to think about for the following tax years.
Sudha Krishnan, chair of accounting
department, and director of the VITA
program, California State University,
Long Beach
“We don’t know what 2022 has in store for us,” said Sudha Krishnan, VITA faculty, and department chair in the Department of Accounting at CSULB. “We are thinking about combining both an online and face-toface program if that’s possible next year so we can reach more of the local community. It’s always a pleasure working with CSUN VITA Clinic in expanding our VITA program.”