How to Volunteer
To volunteer for this clinic, you will need to register for FHCE 4235S (undergraduate) or FHCE 6235S (graduate) which are both 3 credit hours and take place each Spring semester. You will participate in a lab in which you’ll interact with clients and prepare their taxes both in person and virtually. In addition, you will meet once a week for class to participate in trainings, discuss cases, and learn the best tax preparation and planning practices.
Required Prerequisite/Corequisite
You will need to have taken a federal income taxation class. The University of Georgia courses that meet this criterion are FHCE 4230/6230, ACCT 5400/7400, or with instructor approval with past work experience.
Spring 2022 Class & Lab Times
Weekly Class Time
- FHCE 4235S (Undergraduate): Mondays 12:40 pm - 1:30 pm
- FHCE 6235S (Graduate) - Tuesdays OR Wednesdays 1:00 pm - In an effort the make the class time as convenient as possible for everyone enrolled, we are offering two meeting times! You'll only be required to attend one each week.
In-person VITA Lab (Location: Georgia United Credit Union)
- Tuesday: 5:10 pm-9:25 pm
- Wednesday: 5:10 pm-9:25 pm
- Thursday: 5:10 pm-9:25 pm
- Saturday: 8:45 am-1:00 pm
Virtual VITA Lab (Location: Charles Schwab Financial Planning Center)
- Monday and Wednesday: 9:00-11:00 am
- Monday and Wednesday: 3:50 pm-5:50 pm
- Tuesday and Thursday: 9:35 am-11:35 am
- Tuesday and Thursday: 3:50 pm-5:50 pm
- Friday: 9:10 am-1:15 pm
- Friday: 1:50 pm-5:55 pm
NOTE: All VITA activities will follow UGA COVID-19 guidelines.
Meet the UGA VITA Team
Lance Palmer
Lance has coordinated UGA VITA for over ten years and teaches the weekly VITA class as well as the prerequisite, FHCE 4230/6230. Lance also leads the in-person VITA sessions at Georgia United Credit Union.
Joan Koonce
Joan provides leadership to UGA Virtual VITA by training Cooperative Extension agents, connecting agents with student tax preparers, assisting agents with taxpayers’ questions, and teaching and supervising virtual sessions.
Faith Rasmussen
Faith helps coordinate UGA VITA program operations, assists with fundraising activities, and serves as lead communication liaison with the IRS. Faith also teaches the undergraduate section of the weekly VITA class and supervises the Virtual VITA lab sessions.
Wil Golden
Wil assists with VITA client meetings and coordinates community outreach in Athens.
Aubrey Richardson
Aubrey is one of the site coordinators for tax season 2022.
Jeannie is one of the site coordinators for tax season 2022.
VITA has been one of my favorite experiences at UGA
Participating in VITA has been one of my favorite experiences at UGA. Through VITA, I was not only able to enhance my tax knowledge and communication skills, but also able to connect with so many amazing people. This semester I was able to help a client save over $1,000. After seeing how grateful she was, I realized the significant impact VITA has on the community. The VITA program allowed me to give back to the Athens community that has meant so much to me over the past four years.
I would definitely recommend VITA
I decided to volunteer with VITA because I wanted to use my tax knowledge to help the local Athens-Clarke County community. As a VITA manager, I led a team of undergraduate students who prepared the tax returns for our clients. Apart from reviewing the tax returns to ensure accuracy, part of my role as a manager was to communicate with our clients and ensure that the VITA sessions ran smoothly. I honed my communication skills and learned how to manage a team to ensure that we serve our clients best. I also enjoyed collaborating with Dr. Palmer and other managers to tackle the more complicated tax returns. Overall, VITA was a really great experience for me because I could see the impact my team was making on our clients, who were all very grateful and patient with us. My favorite memory of VITA would be the pizza party on our last session (at GUCU) to celebrate the end of our tax season! I would definitely recommend VITA to any student who wants to make a real impact in the community!