Rancho Cucamonga teens help adults file their taxes

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. - Teenage students at Rancho Cucamonga High School are volunteering as tax experts, helping adults file their important documents with the IRS this tax season.

"My goal is to help them get the highest amount of refund they can get," said Nicholas Rosales, an 11th grade student. "Also, that all the information is correct."

Rosales was one of several students at the school volunteering his time early Saturday morning. The tax submission season ends in about a week.

"Once you get that hands-on experience, that’s when you really start to learn," said Rosales. "Stuff starts to connect and click."

For Chris Van Duin, an accounting teacher at Rancho Cucamonga High School, the tax program is very rewarding. Throughout the last 5 years, he has worked with the IRS to get students trained and certified as tax experts through their Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

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"One of our big goals obviously is career development," said Van Duin. "We’ve seen some move on, now being hired as accountants for Deloitte and Edison. Also, just kids that can now prepare their family’s returns. [It] has been very rewarding."

The VITA program has been around since the 1970s. This year, Van Duin has certified dozens of his students through VITA. They plan to submit about 300 tax returns for free.

"We’ve had people over the years that get it done and are suspicious that somehow something is missed," said Van Duin.  "We always give them the paperwork [and] they’ll go get it checked. Every single time they call me back and say the numbers are exactly the same as what [they] paid $150 for."

The students are still taking appointments. Anyone interested can contact Van Duin at chris.vanduin@cjuhsd.net.

"Having that interaction with older people, it gives me more skills to talk to [adults]," said Rosales. "The knowledge I need for the future, that’s what inspires me to keep going."