CSULB VITA Growing Partnerships in Community 2026 Refund Totals!
With 80 student volunteers, the Volunteer Income Tax Preparation (VITA) program at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) continued to grow in 2026, launching a new partnership with Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson and the city's Westside Promise program to help revitalize an under-resourced neighborhood.
Students from CSULB VITA led a free tax preparation event for Westside Promise Feb. 28, to help eligible residents file their returns and secure valuable state and federal tax credits. Long Beach City Manager Tom Modica also visited CSULB's on-campus VITA clinic to meet students.
"We were proud to be part of this effort to help financially empower residents of West Long Beach," said VITA Director Sudha Krishnan, Chair of the Accountancy Department at CSULB.
'They came up with a great way to use technology to help them do their work better," she said.
Years: 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 Count: 697, -903, 1,673, 1,574, 1,592
Also in 2026, the CSULB VITA students were invited to visit Harvey Mudd College (HMC) in Claremont, CA to help HMC students learn how to file their own tax returns.
"Our students went and showed them what to do and answered their questions so the Harvey Mudd students were able to file their own taxes," Krishnan said.
Recent survey data showed that CSULB students were eager to volunteer for VITA in part to replace internships that may conflict with their busy work schedules. Krishnan added.
"Many of our students consider working at VITA like an internship," she said. "It is a good way to get experience and CSULB VITA team to find out if you love working in tax. It can give students a little advantage with accounting firms during recruiting season.
To increase efficiency during the 2026 tax season, the CSULB VITA students established a private Discord channel for the tax preparers and Professor Krishnan to communicate and request help, such as the required quality review (QR) step once taxpayer returns are complete.
"Our VITA Clinic space is quite large, and the students can now send confidential messages to say 'I need a QR now at Computer 8' so they don't waste client time walking back and forth." Krishnan said.
The professor reiterated that the Discord channel is for internal logistics only and no confidential taxpayer information is exchanged.
TOTAL REFUNDS: $1.4 MILLION State: $369,880
