Penn State Dickinson Wins Tax Assistance Award

Carlisle, PA (September 6, 2006) – The Law Student Division of the American Bar Association honored Penn State Dickinson School of Law with its 2006 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Outstanding Continuing Site award at the Annual Meeting held August 3-5 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Penn State Dickinson School of Law won this same award in 2004.

The VITA program is a service of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in which IRS-certified volunteers provide free tax preparation assistance to low-income, special needs and elderly taxpayers. Under the VITA program at Penn State Dickinson, certified student volunteers assist taxpayers with their federal, state and local tax returns.

Participation in the VITA program not only affords law students the opportunity to gain valuable, first-hand experience in dealing with the complexities of complying with the Internal Revenue Code, but it also provides an opportunity for the law school to deliver a valuable public service to qualified residents of Carlisle and the surrounding communities. In the prior tax year, 48 law student volunteers prepared more than 1,000 federal, state and local tax returns for 425 taxpayers, plus their spouses and dependents, residing in Cumberland, Perry, Dauphin, York, Franklin and Adams counties.

Penn State Dickinson has participated in the VITA program for the past 25 years. Professor William B. Barker, a member of the full-time faculty, has for the last 23 years supervised the program and trained law student volunteers. He has been ably assisted for several years by Ms. Kerry Annett, the VITA Program Coordinator.