UWest recently received a Certificate of Congressional Recognition issued by Dr. Judy Chu, 32nd District’s Congress member and the Outstanding Public Service Award issued by the IRS office, for its Volunteers for Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program performed in 2011. UWest received these awards because its VITA program has been continuously improving--helped more people this year than the previous years and at the same time increased the e-filings’ acceptance rates significantly over years.

The Department of Business Administration at UWest started this VITA program in 2008. The program is partnered with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Under the supervision of Professors Richard Phan and Bill Chen, all volunteers first passed the required tests before they helped people file their individual federal and CA State tax returns.