The College of Business is offering a program that assists citizens with their taxes.

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program started Feb. 15 and will end April 14, with taxes this year being due on April 18. The service is provided by trained ISU accounting students.

“This is a program that the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] has had for a very long time,” said William Dilla, associate professor of accounting. “It is at least 15 to 20 years old, maybe longer.”

The program is offered as a four-credit course to students in the College of Business.

“The important change we made three years ago was starting to do this as a four-credit course,” Dilla said. “The idea came from some of our students who are in the Beta Alpha Psi [business fraternity] who had gone to a regional conference and found that other schools were doing it as a service learning for credit.”

There are about 30 students that are enrolled in the course this year.

Dilla said, “The class is open to any business major. I think everybody in it this year is an accounting major.

Beta Alpha Psi assists ISU students as well as anyone else in the community with their income tax returns through the volunteer assistance program, which they sponsor.

 The Volunter Income Tax Assistance class is sponsored by the IRS.

“The IRS provides all the training materials,” Dilla said. “As coordinator of [Beta Alpha] Psi, they give me additional guidance about what we can and cannot do. As tax laws are changing, they give me updates, and I communicate those updates to the rest of the volunteers.”

To be eligible for the program, a taxpayer must have a household income of less than $58,000.

“It’s the number the IRS gives us,” Dilla said. “It’s adjusted for inflation; the ceiling goes up every year.”

The program has gotten more popular each year.

Dilla said, “Three years ago we did about 150 tax returns over the season, two years ago we did about 250, and last year we did about 500. I would think, though, we probably won’t do many more than 500 this year since there is only so much we can do.”

The program isn’t just for students, but for anyone in the Ames community.

“While a majority of our clients are students, we serve the entire community,” Dilla said. “Anybody who meets the guidelines can come in and have their return done.”

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program is located in room 2148 of the Gerdin Business Building. To schedule an appointment students must go online to the ISU Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Appointment Calendar. Walk-in appointments are available, though limited.