When asked why Kristen D. volunteers for VITA, she said, “It lets me make a difference in someone else’s life.” It’s VITA Awareness Day! #VITAWorks

In 90 years TAUW has invested more than $669 million in the Tulsa area. TAUW provides services to hundreds of thousands annually through 61 partner agencies.

Thank you for your volunteer service and the awesome work you do.

Items discussed by TaxSlayer

• Filed close to 700,000 returns since our last all partners call
  • Overall you are close to 2% ahead of last year’s volume, which is really good considering the weather challenges of the past two weeks in the northeast and e-file across the industry has been trending down 2%
• For partners that are Certified Acceptance Agents for applying for and renewing ITINs, we have made some changes to allow information to flow to the bottom of the W-7
  • Added a section in preparer(s) setup to add your Acceptance Agent Information
• We lengthened the State fields on the W-2 (primarily the EIN field) so it is easier for the QR to quality review the return. You can now see the entire entry without having to click in the box.
• Rejected returns marked as “paper” are no longer included in the Rejected Returns Report
• The Rejected Clients call to action button on the Welcome screen only blinks once now
• Added California Wildfires and Tropical Storm Harvey to the Disaster Designation list in Personal Information
• Added the Customer Retention Report to the list of VITA reports inside the program.
  • Purpose is to run a report for a specific time from last year to determine which taxpayers have not had their returns prepared for the current year
  • Could potentially be used next year for planning purposes because it lists the date the taxpayer’s return was completed
• We are posting informational messages from SPEC Headquarters to help reach the goal of 4 million returns
• We posted a message at the request of New York on how to handle expired driver’s license for taxpayer or spouse
  • They do accept expired driver’s license as a valid form of identification
  • We are making a program change to accommodate this specific for the state of New York because other states do not acknowledge an expired license as a valid form of ID
  • Their preference is to hold a state return IF they have an expired drivers license
  • You can create a custom tag to identify the return and use the notes to enter the expiration date
• What is the best report to use to identify if the site has marked state returns as paper rather than an electronic return type?
  • Navigate to Management Reports
  • Select Detailed Return Report under the Pro Web Reports section
  • This will allow you to filter the state return type column to identify paper returns

Q:  What can be done to prevent things breaking when fixes are pushed out?

A:  The goal of course is for this to not happen.  We go through a series of regression testing for each released based on the changes that are being made.

Q:  How can rejected returns be removed from the Rejected Clients list?

A:  Once you mark a return as paper, it will be removed from the rejected clients list and the rejected clients reports

Q:  Where is the direct debit information printed on the return?

A:  It is printed on the Client List form, which is currently in the Quality Review print set.  An alternative to pulling this up and just printing out the page, would be to create a Direct Debit print set that just has the Client List Form in it.  This would allow you to print the tax return as normal and then for those taxpayers using direct debit, you can choose that print set and it will just generate a PDF with the Client list form in it.  You can then print the entire Client List for or the page the information is listed on.

Q:  Checking to see when  prior year reports will pull return data for TY2016 returns that were prepared after January 1st, 2018

A: We do have an issue in development to display this information on the Site Production Detail and Summary reports for 2016.  The following reports until Management Reports will display information on these returns

• ProWeb Reports — Detailed Return Report
• Electronic Filing Summary Report
• State Detail Summary Report

Q:  Is there any type of checklist that prints when you complete a paper return letting the taxpayer know what they need to do?

A:  No there is not.

Q:  Is there a way to show the direct debit date?

A:  Currently no.  We already have that documented as a requested revision to next year’s software.

#VITAworks in Minnesota

Thank you for your volunteer Service

In February and March, the United Way of Central West Virginia (Charleston) hosted nine young people from AmeriCorps NCCC.  Sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service, this team trained and certified, and prepared many federal and state returns.

AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, residential, team-based program for young adults, age 18-24.  VITA tax preparation is a growing area of their mission.  This team enlivened this United Way site with their energy and enthusiasm, and provided valuable assistance to many taxpayers.

The AmeriCorps NCCC motto is, “Be The Greater Good”.  This team certainly was for this first-year VITA site.

For more information, contact Cassandra Curtis at the United Way of Central West Virginia ([email protected]) or AmeriCorps NCCC Assistant Program Director Stephanie Chan ([email protected]).

Thank you Cassel P. for sharing this awesome story with us.

Goodwill of Tulsa area asked their volunteers:  “Why do you volunteer for VITA?”

Click here to view Video

Thank you for your volunteer service

This video URL will open up a Facebook page.  You do not have to have a Facebook Account to view the video

Click here to view Video

Host:  Rebecca Thompson

We received a request to highlight a VITA/TCE out of Massachusetts, Springfield Technical Community College, that was recently highlighted on a locally produced TV show in the area, Mass Appeal. To check out the interview and learn how this site is spreading the VITA word around their community, click here.

Thank you for sharing, Deyanira!