Alumni-Owned CPA Firm Takes The Lead in Assisting SDSU VITA Clients

When the campus at San Diego State University shut down in mid-March, accounting professor Steve Gill, realized he had more than the pandemic crisis to worry about.

Gill directs SDSU’s Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, where IRS-certified student volunteers prepare state and federal tax forms for those making under $56,000 annually at no charge. With March being the height of tax preparation season, SDSU’s VITA program still had hundreds of appointments that would have to be cancelled due to the pandemic shutdown.

From left: Mason, Brian and Andrew Szuberla

This emergency left many of those with SDSU VITA appointments wondering where to turn, especially since SDSU was the only VITA program in San Diego county with volunteers trained to prepare taxes for students who weren’t U.S. residents. While Gill was able to provide information on free online self-preparation resources and other VITA programs in the county that could help U.S. residents, he also wanted to provide assistance to non-U.S. residents. 

With this challenge in mind, Gill contacted two of his former students, Mason Szuberla (’11, accountancy/’11 MSA) and Brian Szuberla (’10, MSA) of Hughes Szuberla CPAs, a local CPA firm, to see if they could help. “When the COVID-19 shutdowns hit in late March, our firm decided we wanted to provide our existing clients with reduced — in some instances, free — services for questions surrounding the new COVID-19-related tax laws,” said Brian Szuberla. “Taking on a few extra clients and helping SDSU students seemed like a natural extension of that. When Professor Gill asked for our assistance, it just seemed like the right thing to do.”  

“While we weren’t helping him directly, this felt like a good way to respect and honor the impact the Professor Gill had on us a decade ago.”

The Szuberlas and their brother, Andrew Szuberla (the firm’s tax manager), offered to complete the federal and state tax returns for all the remaining SDSU VITA clients for $99. The $99 fee for CPA-prepared tax returns was a significant discount from the firm’s standard fee and many of the clients that remained on SDSU’s VITA schedule after the shutdown took advantage of the offer.  In addition, Hughes Szuberla CPAs will donate 10% of the proceeds to SDSU’s Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy.

The Szuberlas’ relationship with Gill began when they served as his teaching assistants while students at SDSU. Since then, they have worked with Gill to hire student tax interns for Hughes Szuberla CPAs and had planned a workshop to offer tax preparation instruction to SDSU students who were not residents of the U.S. until the COVID-19 shutdown cancelled their plans.  “Both Mason and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Professor Gill.” said Brian Szuberla. “He is a great teacher and while we weren’t helping him directly, this felt like a good way to respect and honor the impact Professor Gill had on us a decade ago.”