Updated December 9, 2009
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)
Return to Give Help or Income Tax Assistance
VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) is a program that provides free tax preparation to benefit individuals with low to moderate income, senior citizens, Non-English speaking persons, and individuals with disabilities. Volunteers prepare basic tax returns at conveniently located community and neighborhood locations. Returns are filed electronically resulting in fast refunds. All training and materials are provided free from the IRS.
Local VITA Impact
In Arizona, millions of EITC dollars were not collected by eligible families. In one hour, you can help a moderate or low-income family collect an average of $1,871 (to a maximum of $5,657) for things like meeting basic needs, purchasing a house or buying a car through your local Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program!
Volunteers play a crucial role in EITC campaigns. Free tax preparation sites depend on volunters and not only do they help working families get the credit(s) they deserve, but also save families the fee charged by professional tax preparers. Last year, volunteers returned more than $7 million impacting more than 10,000 hard working families.
Learn more about EITC courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Please help residents "File & Smile" by choosing any of the following volunteer opportunities:
Site Coordinator
- Pass IRS tax law and tax software training
- Establish a Quality Review process for the site
- Ensure that all Volunteer tax preparers are aware of the Quality Review procedures
- Provide feedback to volunteer tax preparers regarding tax prep errors and adherence to site quality procedures
- Develop and maintain schedule for volunteers
- Perform administrative duties
Volunteer Tax Preparer
- Pass Tax law and tax software training
- Prepare basic 1040 tax returns and related schedules
- Answer tax related questions
- Prepare a correct and accurate return
- Maintain confidentiality of customer information
- Provide and explain a copy of the completed return to the customer
- Adhere to site quality and administrative procedures
Screeners
- General tax law and E-file knowledge
- Perform screening process of all customers to determine the type of assistance needed
- Ensure that the customer has brought the necessary information
Greeter
- Greet customers visiting the site to create a friendly, orderly atmosphere
- Manage traffic flow to help assure sufficient time available to assist the customer
Interpreters
- Provide free interpreter services at the VITA site
Instructors
- Teach basic tax law
- Teach Tax Wise Software
The EITC Local Initiative includes:
- Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families
- Arizona Community Action Association
- Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES)
- Arizona Community Foundation
- Arizona Department of Revenue
- Arizona SAVES
- ACORN
- Arizona Public Service (APS)
- Bank of America
- Children's Action Alliance
- Cities of Avondale, Glendale, Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe
- Collaboration for a New Century
- Community Information & Referral
- Consumer Credit Counseling Services Southwest (A Division of Money Management International)
- Fresh Start Women's Foundation
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
- Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG)
- Mesa Community Action Network (MesaCAN)
- Mesa United Way
- Morris Institute for Justice
- Pinnacle West
- Salt River Project (SRP)
- Southwest Gas
- Tempe Community Council
- United Way of Pinal County
- United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona
- Valley of the Sun United Way
- Wells Fargo
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