San Jose City College is the first community college in the San Jose area to become a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site.

“Basically, (becoming) a VITA site means becoming a partner to the department of Internal Revenue Services,” said Fabio Gonzalez, Extended Opportunity Program and Services counselor. “By being a partner with the IRS, you can offer the services of doing (free) basic tax preparations for individuals who earn less than $51,000 a year.”

Accounting instructor Linda Ferrell has been recruiting her accounting students to do VITA IRS volunteer work for 10 years. On their own time, the students have volunteered at different VITA sites, such as libraries and community centers.

Ferrell came into contact with Allison Redington, IRS auditor and VITA site coordinator for the Campbell library site, because her students had been volunteering at the Campbell VITA site.

Redington and Josie Martinez, senior tax specialist and VITA volunteer, contacted Ferrell and Gonzalez in the fall of 2012 about becoming a VITA site. They wanted SJCC to become a VITA site because it’s centrally located and they want to reach more people.

“We decided to step it up a notch and actually start a VITA site here on campus with (Ferrell’s) students being the volunteers,” Martinez said.

This is the first year SJCC has provided this service and not a lot of people know about it.

Cristal Rosales, 25, music major and student worker in the counseling department, said, “I like that they are offering this free (service) for people to help us with our taxes. I’m just a little confused about (the details) of the program.”

The way people can access this free service is by filing an E-tax preparation online at myfreetaxes.com/sanjosecitycollege or by going in person to have one of Ferrell’s students do the tax preparations for free.

The students perform these free basic income tax returns in the Transfer Center in the Student Center building every Thursday through March 21 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. This free service is available for everybody in the community not just students and faculty.

Anybody who is interested in this service must should bring a picture ID and their social security card, and they must fill out paperwork.

Redington reviews the information before she assigns a person to a student based on the student’s capabilities and their level of certification.

“Every return that gets prepared gets reviewed by (myself or Josie) before it is printed,” Redington said.

According to Martinez, a person volunteering for VITA must pass the Standards of Conduct test and a basic level certification test to be able to assist someone with a simple return. If they are interested, they can also take an intermediate or advanced test.

“We make sure that whoever is the preparer is certified to do (the job they are assigned to),” Redington said.

Martinez and Redington both said they would like to see people use VITA because it really frustrates them to see low-income families being taken advantage of. They hate to see the low-income families pay a lot of money just to have a simple tax return prepared for them.

“The only thing that (VITA) costs you is a little bit of your time,” Redington said.

The SJCC VITA site has done very well so far, and they will be back to provide this free service again next year if they meet their minimum of 50 tax returns.

“I think a lot of people from SJCC should take advantage of this. I don’t think a lot of people know about these (VITA) sites, and I think it’s a really great thing to have on a campus: a site that hopefully students, families, faculty, anyone who doesn’t earn more than $51,000 a year and neighbors who here put up with all that we do here,” Ferrell said. “I think the college should give back, and I think it will benefit so many people.”