User:SjolieW1/IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program/Bibliography

VITA volunteers include greeters, intake specialists, and tax preparers. All volunteers must pass a code of conduct exam and an intake interview/quality review exam.

The VITA tax returns are prepared by IRS tax law certified volunteers. They must pass a tax law exam to receive basic or advanced certification. The passing score is 80%. Certificates expire at the end of the tax year and must be renewed. When seeking tax assistance from  a paid tax preparation service the need for accuracy is incredibly important since the refund allotted to low-wage earners is likely a large portion of their yearly wage.

VITA has other optional certifications. These include certificates for Health Savings Accounts (HSA), Military personnel, International tax issues, Foreign Student returns, and Puerto Rico returns. Some military bases participate in VITA with IRS agents training service members to complete military tax returns. Foreign students' returns are prepared at major public universities such as Arizona State University by more advanced experts.

VITA volunteers are taught how to use tax software and specific tax law each year. The complication of applying tax codes and the risk of being taken advantage of by paid tax preparation services is diminished with the presence of over 4,000 nation-wide VITA sites. One of the focal points of VITA is raising taxpayer awareness and receipt of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC). These two credits have a long history of poverty alleviation within the US, they originated during the 1970s War on Poverty in the Tax Reduction act of 1975.

As of 2017,  the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act contributed to the over complication of Tax filing. The statistics researched by the Non-profit Prosperity Now proves VITA to be a relevant necessity in poverty reduction. Today, tax preparation remains to be a highly unregulated industry and around 60% of all taxpayers turn to a paid preparation service. Unfortunately, for low-income tax payers the benefits of the EITC are diminished as refund loan fees cut into the cash refunded to the taxpayer. This fact makes a service like VITA more important in alleviating poverty and helping disadvantaged communities. The longevity of the program is dependent on funding being approved and provided by congress. The last official act to support the IRS initiative was made in 2017. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Permanence Act of 2017 that ensured low-income workers and underserved communities would gain assistance from VITA. Specifically, the bill “directs the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to establish a Community Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Matching Grant Program to provide matching funds for the development, expansion, or continuation of tax preparation programs to assist low-income taxpayers and members of underserved populations.”