Mallory Mills
VITA is VITAL
Edge Prject 2017
Name: Mallory Mills
Hometown: Fruit Heights
Major: Accounting
EDGE Track: Leadership
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VITA is Vital
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Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is a federally sponsored program that allows members of the Cedar City Community to file their income taxes for free. As VITA is a federal program there are stipulations on for who we are allowed to do taxes. The biggest thing we worry about is how much money they make, we are only allowed to do taxes for people who made a gross income of $53,000 or less. Also, we can only do people’s taxes if they are simple, so we have to turn away people who have a Health Savings Card or who have Advanced Capital Gains or Losses during the year.
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Every year students in the business department volunteer to be tax preparers and reviewers. Last year, I volunteered as a preparer. This year I was a reviewer. As a reviewer, I answer questions from the preparers, I review the work of the preparers, and I had the opportunity to meet new people in the community. I also became better aquatinted with the people who are studying in the business department as we spent many hours together working on peoples taxes.
A few years ago I had an idea for my edge project. I completed the class that I needed to and I ended up getting a full time job and I wasn’t very motivated to complete it. In the end I decided that I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t love it. I talked to the EDGE center and changed my project to VITA. I don’t regret that decision. I have really enjoyed doing VITA for the second year in a row and it has made me consider working as a Tax Accountant. Before VITA, I had considered being an Auditing Accounting and now, because I love doing people’s taxes I have had to rethink about the rest of my life.
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The biggest challenge that I faced was the fact that I needed to change my EDGE project. I am currently a senior and because of that I am very busy. I procrastinated talking to my EDGE mentor. I wouldn’t suggest waiting if you want to change your project! After I changed my project everything else was pretty smooth sailing.
The biggest benefit to others is that people get their taxes done for free. I loved talking to people at the end of their visit and I thank them for coming, almost always they thank us right back. They tell me that they have come to VITA for years and love getting their taxes done for free.
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This year we used a new software for VITA and I have been able to add that to my resume as well as volunteer service. I am also benefited by getting to know the people who are in my program. I love meeting new people especially when they have similar interests as I do. Meeting more accounting majors’ helps me network and will hopefully help me in the long run when I am looking for jobs.
There are ups and downs of VITA. One day this woman came in and she was a native Mexican with a green card to work in the U.S. She didn’t have her physical card with her and we had to turn her away. I was sad about it because I was able to speak to her in Spanish while she was there. Some days are wonderful and we help people save lots of money on their taxes.
