One of the critical IRS outreach elements offered annually to taxpayers is our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. The VITA program — and Tax Counseling for the Elderly, or TCE — will begin its 42nd year in 2012 of providing free tax preparation to lower and moderate income individuals, families, seniors and those who speak English as a second language. Generally, we're talking about simple returns with incomes $50,000 or less being prepared by volunteers at dozens, hundreds even, of sites throughout the southland.
How would you like to be one of those volunteers? The IRS and one of our biggest partners, AARP, are looking for 2012 volunteers. Training is provided! You can help by either preparing returns, being a greeter, a computer / IT specialist, fundraiser, communication / marketing specialist — or a combination of them if you wish.
The IRS partners with AARP and many other community-based coalitions to provide this service. Thus, you can look into volunteering in your community not only with AARP, but with so many other partners. In fact, we recently created a tax tip that is full of all the details you will need. For example: How many hours per week will I spend? (3 or 4, or up to 8 a week) When is the training? (Usually in late December / early January) And of course, when and how long? (About 10 weeks, from early Feb. through the middle of April).
CALL TO ACTION
Additional information about becoming a volunteer can be found on the IRS website or you can send an email with your contact information along with the city and state where you want to become a volunteer to TaxVolunteer@irs.gov.
And finally, back to AARP, it operates and oversees thousands of sites across the country so if you are interested, you can contact the AARP Tax-Aide team at 1-888-687-2277 or by visiting AARP’s Tax Aide website.
Oh yeah, some 88,000 volunteers nationally answered the call last year...wanna join 'em?
