The IRS published Tax Tip 2019-90 today. Below are details you can share with others in your community that may wish to become a volunteer for VITA/TCE for this upcoming filing season.

“Every year, hundreds of people volunteer their time to help other taxpayers. IRS volunteers provide free tax preparation in communities across the nation. While it might seem like the distant future, people who want to volunteer in 2020 can start taking action now.

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly programs offer free tax help across the country. These programs help people with low-to-moderate incomes, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and those who speak limited English. Last year, VITA and TCE volunteers prepared millions of federal tax returns for qualified taxpayers at no cost. Anyone interested in volunteering can visit the sign-up page on IRS.gov.

Here are reasons people become an IRS-certified VITA or TCE tax volunteer:

• Flexible hours. Volunteers serve an average of three to five hours per week. The programs are usually open from mid-to-late-January through the tax filing deadline in April. Some sites are even open all year.
• VITA and TCE sites are often nearby. Each year there are thousands of sites set up in neighborhoods all over the country. These free tax help sites are in places like community centers, libraries, schools and shopping malls.
• No prior experience needed. Volunteers receive special training and often serve in a variety of roles. VITA and TCE programs want volunteers of all backgrounds and ages. They also want people who are fluent in other languages.
• Free tax law training and materials. Volunteers receive training materials at no charge. The tax law training covers how to prepare basic federal tax returns electronically. The training also covers tax topics like deductions and credits.
• Continuing education credits for tax pros. Enrolled agents and non-credentialed tax return preparers can earn continuing education credits when volunteering as a VITA/TCE instructor, quality reviewer, or tax return preparer.

More Information:
IRS Free Tax Return Preparation Programs
Link & Learn Taxes
Tax Topic 101: IRS Services – Volunteer Tax Assistance, Outreach Programs, and Identity Theft”

Refer to Publication 3112, IRS e-file Application and Participants, for additional information about notifying the IRS of changes to your application.

For sites experiencing slowness, click this link and follow the below instructions.

Click the type of Internet Connection used at your site. Examples include Cable Internet, Public WiFi, DSL, 4G, etc. This will automatically start the Internet speed test.

Take a screenshot of the results and e-mail to [email protected] with Subject Line “Speed Test”.

*For additional and more in-depth troubleshooting tips, please click here.*

TaxSlayer VITA/TCE Support will be closed on Easter Sunday, 4/21/2019. Beginning Monday, April 22nd, off-season customer support hours will begin as follows:

• Sunday: CLOSED
• Monday-Friday: 8am-5pm ET
• Saturday: CLOSED

Today was the last all partner call for this filing season. Thank you to each and every one of you that made this filing season a success! We know local taxpayers in your community champion your efforts in providing a valuable and vital resource to them.

We didn’t have very many updates to cover today other than reminding everyone we are currently in a “code freeze” until after April 15th. This just means that we will not have any program deployments from April 10th (yesterday) through April 15th. We also mentioned the Suggestion Box and strongly encouraged volunteers to enter any and all suggestions to continue to enhance the software for you. Also, regarding the Suggestion Box, as a reminder the Suggestion Box is to report enhancements you’d like to see but not to report items you feel are defects with the software. Any potential defects need to be reported directly to customer support so they can be addressed quickly.

Below are the questions and answers recorded from the All Partner Call on Thursday, April 11th. There were only two questions asked.

Q: More of a suggestion but a volunteer asked if the 1040-NR program can be updated to allow for an entry to support a departure date prior to an arrival date for the Schedule OI. This would specifically benefit students that go home in May and return to school in August or September.

• We asked this item be reported to the Suggestion Box for further review. One item that needs to be reviewed is if the 1040-NR schema would support this type of entry via electronic submission.

Q: This was a question presented to IRS representatives on the call. How to handle a 1099-MISC with Box 7 income when the income should have been reported in Box 3?

• Advisement from the IRS was to “key it how you see it” but ultimately the taxpayer should be referred back to the payer to have a corrected 1099-MISC.

Below are the questions and answers recorded from the All Partner Call on Thursday, March 28th. We are posting questions most applicable to all sites.

Q: How do we determine residency status when an international student with an F1 visa changes to an H1B employee status with the H1B being less then half the year?

• Referred volunteer to their SPEC RM to perform tax research on their behalf.

Q: Can you lock a return after it has been accepted so it cannot be reopened?

• No, but from Client Status, volunteers can generate the accepted PDF of the Federal and State Return(s).

Q: Can the Suggestion Box send automated responses summarizing entries made?

• Currently, this is not available using the third-party survey platform.

Q: Is there a way to delete preparers instead of just marking them inactive?

• No, preparers added must stay in the database because their logins are tied to tax returns prepared and transmitted.