VITA Resources for Volunteers
  • Home
  • Training Checklist
  • Training
  • Dependents
  • Filing Status
  • Standard Deduction
  • Income
    • Schedule K-1
    • Self Employed
  • Adjustments to Income
  • Certification Help
  • Changes for This Year
  • PRACTICE SCENARIOS
  • Coordinators
  • Spanish/Espanol Training
  • Credits
    • Education Credit
  • Healthcare Info
  • Quality Review & Print Sets
  • Refunds
  • Balance Due
  • Foreign Student
  • W-4 INFO
  • W-7 ITIN APPLICATION
  • FAFSA
  • FSA SITE INFO
  • VALET & VIRTUAL
  • CERT ACCEPT AGENT
  • Migrant Workers
  • Financial Literacy
  • LITC
  • Volunteering SWFL
  • Amendment
  • Consent Form
  • CE CREDITS
  • Explaining a Return
  • POA
  • Greeter Intake
  • Transcripts
  • HSA
  • Volunteer Agreement
  • Blog
  • Interpreters
  • SWFL VITA
  • How To's & Misc Stuff
  • Customer Portal
  • PRESEASON WORKSHOP
  • For Clients
  • Home
  • Training Checklist
  • Training
  • Dependents
  • Filing Status
  • Standard Deduction
  • Income
    • Schedule K-1
    • Self Employed
  • Adjustments to Income
  • Certification Help
  • Changes for This Year
  • PRACTICE SCENARIOS
  • Coordinators
  • Spanish/Espanol Training
  • Credits
    • Education Credit
  • Healthcare Info
  • Quality Review & Print Sets
  • Refunds
  • Balance Due
  • Foreign Student
  • W-4 INFO
  • W-7 ITIN APPLICATION
  • FAFSA
  • FSA SITE INFO
  • VALET & VIRTUAL
  • CERT ACCEPT AGENT
  • Migrant Workers
  • Financial Literacy
  • LITC
  • Volunteering SWFL
  • Amendment
  • Consent Form
  • CE CREDITS
  • Explaining a Return
  • POA
  • Greeter Intake
  • Transcripts
  • HSA
  • Volunteer Agreement
  • Blog
  • Interpreters
  • SWFL VITA
  • How To's & Misc Stuff
  • Customer Portal
  • PRESEASON WORKSHOP
  • For Clients

 a work in progress for ty2022--checklist

To become a knowledgeable tax preparer requires more than just passing test. It requires knowing some tax law, and more importantly, how to look-up what you don’t know and ask questions.  Follow these steps and you will have a successful tax season. Thank you for being a part of the VITA team!
*I have put together training resources  below listed in order of tax-preparation & intake form
*The IRS has the following tax law training for volunteers as well: 
  • PUB 4491 covers tax Law for the VITA/TCE volunteer
    • (available as a PDF) updated generally by mid October-click link
    • also available in interactive modules Link & Learn-updated late November-click link

Intake Form 
One of the most important parts of preparing a complete and accurate return.  It guides the intake/interview process and helps you gather all the needed information.

Click on image for a breakdown by section and what to look for.

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Client Not a U.S. Citizen?
If client indicates they are not a U.S. Citizen, you need to determine if they can file with VITA. 

Click on image for steps to take.

​See PUB 4012 L1 & L2

The ONLY 1040-NRs we can do with VITA are for International Students and Teachers on specific VISA types, and the Preparer and Quality Reviewer Must have Foreign Student Certification
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Dependents  Who can be claimed as a dependent? What are the rules? 

​Well, it can depend on several things like: the person's age, relationship to taxpayer, where the person lives, their income, whether in school, what a divorce decree says...
To Learn about who can be a Qualifying Child & Qualifying Relative for tax purposes and possible credits click image.

See PUB 4012 Section C

I list dependents before filing status since you need to know if they have qualifying dependents in order to determine if they can be Head of Household or Qualifying Widow/widower. 
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Dependents

Filing Status
Choosing the correct & most advantageous filing status. While you may think that this is a white and black thing, just like everything else, there are exceptions to rules. 

Unfortunately, making a mistake in selecting the correct filing status can result in a variety of problems. 

To Learn about the Different Filing Statuses  click on image.

See PUB 4012 pages B 8-11
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Filing Status

Standard Deductions Tax Year 2022

What does it mean?
What are the TY2022 values?
How does it affect the return?

See PUB 4012 Section F
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Income 
Learn about the various types of earned and unearned income and how to enter them in Taxslayer.**Some examples provided
​
This is a big section--a lot of information to cover

See Pub 4012 Section D
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Income
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Adjustments to Income -

How are they different than credits? 
How do they affect the return?

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Adjustments to Income


Remember your PUB 4012  is your 'Bible'-please refer to it, get familiar with it both in print and online. PUB 4012 and PUB 4491 should be your go to guide for tax questions.
​*As always, if you see an error or have a suggestion, please let me know. I am human, I make mistakes, and I am in no way a tax expert. 
Home
About
Contact Me
You can contact me at maryvitataxes@gmail.com 
Please note: I, Mary Meador, AM NOT a certified accountant or tax law expert. I volunteer with VITA providing free tax preparation for individuals and families whose income is less than $66,000 a year. We deal with simple returns at our sites.  I cannot guarantee the accuracy of all the information on this site as tax laws change and I may not have a clear understanding of complicated issues. I am trying to provide basic tax preparation information for our volunteers to get started--remember Publication 4012 is your go-to resource for questions, as well as irs.gov and Publication 17. ​