VITA: A comprehensive review of the literature and an analysis of the program in accounting education in the U.S

This paper provides a review of the literature on the role of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program in accounting education. The consensus is that the VITA program affords students an experiential learning opportunity to enhance their academic experience with real-life work exposure. However, there also seems to be a sense of underutilization of VITA as a service learning activity. Underlying that sentiment, somewhat, is the lack of an ongoing, constructive discourse on current practices. These observations provided us the impetus to develop and administer a cross-sectional survey investigating the structure of VITA programs in accounting education in the U.S. We utilize a non-sampling research design in that we reach out to the entire population of accounting programs in the U.S. The study includes an analysis of active VITA programs, an investigation into the demise of discontinued programs, and descriptive information on institutions that have never offered a program. Our goal is to energize VITA program activity in accounting education and promote future discussion and research about the program. We contribute to the literature by providing the first comprehensive literature review of VITA programs in accounting education coupled with a data-driven description of the current status of VITA