Malden Taxes

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Volunteering

Have you thought about volunteering?

No previous experience necessary
- You'll receive specialized training from certified VITA Volunteers
- You can serve as translators, greeters, quality reviewers, taxpreparers, or other
IRS provides free tax law training
- We provide all the training materials you need
- If you want to be a tax preparer or quality reviewer, you get free tax law training
Hours are flexible
- Mid-January 2012 through April 2012 - 6-12 hours/week preferred
- Evening, Saturday, and some daytime hours available
- Volunteers can stay on through October 17, 2012 (or longer) for occasional late returns
We need your skills to offer this valuable community service
- You may be good on the telephone, at the computer, or just very good at organizing tasks; we need people with many different skills; call us to see if you can help
Serve your community while learning to prepare taxes
- You'll learn how to manage your own taxes better

Volunteer Welcome - Jan 2012

Details: Published Date; Hits: 233

Welcome Volunteer!

You are joining a select group of volunteers to work with the Tri-CAP VITA Coalition in preparing tax returns for the low-income community in our area. Your volunteer work is very important to us and the community. Low-wage earners often pay to get their taxes done so they can get the refund quickly; in doing so, they often go to a professional tax service for a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL). These RALs can end up being quite costly and, thanks to your help, are unnecessary.

The Cyber Café @ Malden Square is an IRS-approved VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) Site. We will prepare federal and Massachusetts tax returns for low-income residents of the tri-cities (Malden, Medford, and Everett) from mid-January through mid-April 2012. Many low-wage earners are also eligible for the Earned Income Credit (EIC), the Child Tax Credit, or other credits which can greatly increase their tax refund.

We are conducting ongoing Orientation/Training sessions at the Cyber Café to get you started. Other volunteers experienced in the program may also assist you. Part of the process is to give us your schedule, a completed CORI form for a background check, and identify which role you want to perform.

For volunteers who wish to prepare tax returns and conduct quality reviews of returns, you'll also need to get certified through the IRS. To begin the IRS Link & Learn web-based tax training, go to http://www.irs.gov and type the keywords “link and learn taxes” or “volunteer training” in the site search bar. You will need to complete the Basic level of training only, but must complete that before actually preparing taxpayer returns. We have other materials for you at the Cyber Café that will aid in training and tax preparation.

We’re using TaxWise software for actual tax preparation and that training is available at the Cyber Cafe. It makes preparing the tax returns much easier and automatically calculates whether or not the individual is eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and other important credits for low-wage earners. Volunteers who aren’t preparing actual returns will not need to take that training.

Our website, http://maldentaxes.org, will include information for volunteers as well as taxpayers. By volunteering with us, you’ll learn about taxes in a way that we hope will help you understand your own tax situation better. The site is continually being updated.

Please get it touch with me if have any questions, want to volunteer, or need to adjust your schedule.

Again, Welcome!

Claire A. Murray

VITA Site Coordinator