The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program: Free Tax Help Today, a Stronger Financial Profession Tomorrow

The IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program sits at the intersection of three powerful trends:

1. The need for free, trustworthy tax preparation for low- and moderate-income households.
2. A growing pipeline of high school, college, and graduate students who want real-world experience in tax, accounting, and financial planning.
3. A looming labor shortage in accounting and financial advice, where demand for talent is outpacing supply.

For families who qualify, VITA helps unlock valuable tax credits and refunds. For young volunteers, it offers hands-on training that textbooks alone cannot provide. And for the broader economy, it helps build the next generation of tax professionals, accountants, and financial planners that the data clearly shows we are going to need.

What Is the VITA Program?

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is an IRS initiative that provides free basic tax return preparation to qualifying taxpayers, operated through community partners such as nonprofits, universities, local governments, and community organizations.

According to the IRS, VITA and its companion program, Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE), have assisted taxpayers in underserved communities for more than 50 years. These programs focus on helping:

• People who generally make $67,000 or less
• Persons with disabilities
• Limited English-speaking taxpayers
• Seniors (especially under TCE)

VITA sites are staffed by IRS-certified volunteers who must complete tax law training and pass annual exams. Every return must go through a quality review process before it is filed, and volunteers are bound by strict standards of conduct and confidentiality.

How Big Is the VITA Program?

The scale of VITA is larger than many people realize.

In the 2025 filing season, the IRS reports that:

• More than 9,500 VITA/TCE sites operated nationwide.
• Over 76,000 volunteers served taxpayers.
• VITA/TCE sites prepared and filed more than 2.8 million federal tax returns.

Historically, VITA has prepared millions of returns per year. For example, IRS data show that in tax year 2015, about 3.7 million VITA returns were filed, with an accuracy rate of 94 percent.

Each of those returns represents a household that may not have otherwise been able to afford professional tax preparation, and many of them receive crucial benefits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC).

Who Is Eligible for VITA?

Although income thresholds can vary slightly by site, the IRS guidance is clear:

Most VITA programs serve:

• Individuals and families with income at or below the EITC threshold (roughly in the high $60,000s, indexed each year).
• Taxpayers with relatively simple returns, including wages, basic self-employment income, unemployment, Social Security, and common credits.
• People who need help understanding credits and deductions, or who may not be comfortable filing on their own.

Some local programs raise the income limit modestly (for example, to $75,000–$80,000) in order to reach more working families in high-cost areas, while still focusing on low- and moderate-income taxpayers.

The Role of Students and Young Volunteers in VITA

Although VITA sites attract volunteers of all ages, high school and college students play an increasingly visible role.

Recent examples include:

• Cal State LA reported a record 139 student volunteers in its VITA program for the 2024 tax season, up from 81 the year before; in 2023 those student volunteers prepared 2,307 returns and generated $3.5 million in refunds for students and local community members.
• High school students in the Laredo Independent School District in Texas, trained and certified by the IRS, filed 601 returns and helped deliver nearly $986,000 in refunds in the 2024 season alone.
• Universities such as San Diego State, UCLA, Southern Illinois University, and many others run full VITA clinics where the majority of volunteers are students studying accounting, business, law, or related disciplines.

The IRS even operates VITA e³, a version of the program designed specifically for schools that combines e-filing, education, and volunteer experience.

While there is no single national statistic on the number of student volunteers, these campus-based programs collectively involve thousands of high school and college students each year, gaining real-world experience in tax preparation and client communication.

Why VITA Matters for the Future of Accounting and Financial Planning

The VITA program is not just a social service; it is also an informal talent pipeline for the professions of accounting, tax, and financial planning—fields that are facing serious talent shortages.

The Accounting Talent Shortage

Multiple data points highlight the challenge:

• In 2022, there were roughly 190,000 open accounting positions in the United States, with the shortage expected to exceed 200,000 roles by 2024.
• More than 300,000 U.S. accountants and auditors left their jobs within two years, a 17 percent decline from the profession’s 2019 peak.
• A 2024 CFO Pulse Survey found that 83 percent of financial leaders could not find enough qualified accounting talent, up from 70 percent just two years earlier.
• A Deloitte-linked survey of CFOs in 2025 found that 85 percent reported shortages in accounting and finance talent.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that roughly 124,200 new accounting and auditing jobs will open each year through 2034, reflecting both growth and replacement needs.

In response, the profession is seeing higher starting salaries, firms experimenting with new career paths, and some states rethinking CPA requirements.

The Financial Advisor Shortage

The wealth management and financial planning side faces similar pressures:

• Advisor headcount has grown only 0.3 percent per year over the past decade and is projected to decline by about 0.2 percent annually, implying a potential shortage of 100,000 advisors by 2034.
• The average U.S. financial advisor is in their 50s, and roughly 37–40 percent are expected to retire in the next decade.
• Only about 6 percent of advisors are under age 30, highlighting how thin the pipeline of young professionals really is.

Against that backdrop, programs like VITA are incredibly important. They expose young people to real client interactions, basic tax law, and the impact of good financial guidance, long before they sit for a CPA, CFP, or CFA exam.

How VITA Helps Build the Next Generation of Professionals

For students and young volunteers, participation in VITA offers several benefits:

• Practical skills in tax preparation, software, and documentation.
• Client-facing experience: interviewing taxpayers, explaining concepts in plain language, and resolving basic issues.
• Ethics and professionalism: volunteers must pass standards-of-conduct and tax-law exams each year.
• Resume and career value: VITA experience is attractive to accounting firms, tax practices, and financial advisory businesses.
• A sense of purpose and impact: students can see directly how their work helps families claim credits and refunds they depend on.

For society, VITA serves a dual mission:

1. Delivering free, high-quality tax help to those who need it most.
2. Cultivating a larger, more prepared cohort of young people who might choose careers in accounting, tax, or financial planning at a time when the data show we desperately need them.
3. Helping people connect with those who are different than themselves.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About VITA

1. What is the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program?
   VITA is an IRS-supported program that offers free basic tax preparation and e-filing services to qualifying taxpayers, primarily low- and moderate-income individuals, people with disabilities, and those with limited English proficiency. It is delivered through partner organizations and staffed by IRS-certified volunteers.
2. Who qualifies to use VITA?
   Eligibility is generally based on income and return complexity. Most VITA sites serve individuals and families with income at or below the Earned Income Tax Credit threshold—around the high $60,000s depending on the year—and focus on returns that do not involve highly complex business or investment issues. Local coalitions may set slightly different income limits within that range.
3. What does VITA cost?
   VITA services are free. Volunteers are not allowed to accept payment, tips, or donations in exchange for preparing tax returns.
4. How accurate are VITA-prepared returns?
   VITA returns must go through a quality review, and volunteers receive annual training and certification. IRS data from earlier years show accuracy rates in the mid-90 percent range, and each return prepared at a VITA/TCE site is subject to mandatory quality review before filing.
5. How do I become a VITA volunteer?
   You can sign up through the IRS VITA/TCE volunteer portal or via a local partner such as a university, United Way, or community nonprofit. Volunteers receive training (online or in person) and must pass tax law and ethics exams before working with taxpayers.
6. Do VITA volunteers need to be accounting majors or tax professionals?
   No. Many volunteers are accounting or finance students, but others come from a wide range of backgrounds. The IRS training materials are designed to help non-experts learn how to prepare basic returns correctly, and every site uses a team structure and quality review process.
7. How does VITA support the future of accounting and financial planning?
   By giving high school and college students real-world experience in tax preparation and client service, VITA helps attract and prepare more young people for careers in accounting, tax, and financial advice. This is especially important given the current and projected shortages in these fields and the high percentage of older professionals nearing retirement.