[Anonymous]

Hey everyone,

Im kind of struggling finding work at the moment, even though I have REG and BEC done, so I thought at least I would be able to volunteer to prepare basic tax returns. Someone metioned that the IRS publishes a volunteer guide and each volunteer must take and pass a basic tax aptitude test. The test questions are available in the booklet. Where can I get this booklet?

[taxgeek83]

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/irs-tax-volunteers

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-for-you-by-volunteers

The first link gives some info about the program and includes an inquiry link. The second includes a link that you can use to find a local VITA site near you. I would recommend going that route and contacting your local organization/host directly to find out how you can get involved. Training materials generally come out mid-November or the beginning of December and are provided by host sites. It's a great program and I hope you enjoy it! Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Sign up asap and hopefully someone will get in contact with you soon. I had my first training course last weekend and it's 3 total plus the exams I have to complete by Jan. I believe there are also December training courses.

[ultrarunner]

Hi all, I signed up in early December but didn't hear back from IRS. Is it too late? I am in Northern California.

FAR 72,67,79 (Roger+Wiley test bank)11/15
AUD 80 (Roger)10/15
BEC 80 (Roger)4/16
REG 63,78 (Roger+Ninja MCQs)5/16

[Anonymous]

I volunteered at a VITA site 2 years ago. Actually, it was a course called Fundamentals of Tax Preparation and the cost was like 200 bucks. The tax software used was called Taxwise (online) as I remember and it was not especially easy to use.
I got the “Advanced” certification online, which allowed me to do Schedule C returns for some people. I only volunteered that one year because the program was quite chaotic. Some people came in with their tax info and if they didn't like the numbers that Taxwise generated for their return (or what they owed), they told us to please not file the info with the IRS and then just walked out. Meanwhile, we wasted a lot of time with them. Some of them came in with the numbers already calculated, either they did it ahead of time or somebody else did it for them, and they wanted us to generate numbers with our software and see if we matched theirs…or if ours were more in their favor, then they gave us the green light to file. Not good at all. My friend was actually the site coordinator and I told him “We need to tell these people that we *will* submit the info to the IRS no matter what, so even if you file elsewhere, there will be a record of you having consulted VITA in the IRS records” but apparently that is not part of VITA's provisions. Whatever.

Trust me, working at a VITA site will not really give you much more knowledge. Especially since you have BEC and REG done. The main reason I took the class was to give myself 3 semester hours towards what I needed to apply for the CPA exam.
A minor reason was that I do like helping people out, even if not paid money. It was an interesting but pretty chaotic experience though, as I say.

[Author]

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