The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program originated from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1969 as a result of an increased emphasis on taxpayer education programs due to the Tax Reform Act of 1969.

 

In 1970, its first year of operation nationwide, 104,000 taxpayers were assisted by approximately 7,500 volunteers.  In 1994, nearly 1.6 million taxpayers were assisted by 51,091 volunteers at 8,626 sites. In 2001, over 2 million taxpayers were assisted by 44,203 volunteers at 8,564 sites. This increase is a result of the tremendous support of the program by volunteers.

In Houston, over 6,000 taxpayers are assisted by over 600 volunteers at 40 sites. VN TeamWork (VNTW) has collaborated with the VITA program since 1996.  Each year, over 90 VNTW volunteers at multiple sites assist over 2,000 taxpayers.

 

 

The Vietnamese-American community takes great pride in the accomplishments that we have made over the last three decades. However, we take even greater pride in the fact that we have always strived to give back to our society and encouraged others to take an active role in the social fabric of our adopted homeland.  Toward that goal, for the  15^th straight year, VNTW collaborates with the IRS to participate in the VITA Program to assist low-income, elderly, physically challenged, and non-English speaking taxpayers in filing their federal income tax returns free of charge.  The program consists of 2 phases:

 

 

From December 10, 2011 to January 28, 2012, VNTW trains volunteers in tax law  and electronic filing (eFile).

 

●     Basic Course:  Designed for volunteers with little or no tax experience.  There will be a minimum of 24 hours of classroom instruction to learn the tax law. Complete attendance, testing, and registration through our office are mandatory to participate in this program. It will be held on Saturday, December 17, 2011, January 07 and January 14 , 2012.  (8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, one hour for lunch break). 

 

●     Refresher Course: Designed for volunteers with previous tax experience such as CPA and/ or previous certified VITA members. There will be a minimum of 8 hours classroom instruction to learn the new tax law. Complete attendance, testing, and registration through our office are mandatory to participate in this program. It will be held on  Saturday, December 10, 2011 (8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, one hour for lunch break).

 

●     Electronic filing: We offer an eFile course for the volunteers who pass tax law from the Basic Course or Refresher Course. There will be a minimum of 16 hours classroom to learn the electronic filing. Complete attendance, testing, and registration through our office are mandatory to participate in this program. It will be held on Saturday, January 21 and January 28,  2012 (8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, one hour for lunch break).

 

●     Sites Kick-Off Meeting: Designed for all volunteers to plan for a better tax season. At the meeting, the volunteers will have a chance to get to know their Site Managers, Assistant Site Managers, Intake and Quality Control Coordinators and the rest of the site volunteer members before they start working with them at the sites. The volunteers will also have a LAST chance to discuss and choose which group and which site they will belong to for the rest of the program period. The meeting will be around 4 hours including meeting, presentation from VNTW and IRS, and luncheon. It is mandatory, and will be held on Sunday, January 29, 2012 (10:00 AM - 2:00 PM). 

 

The volunteers MUST complete a minimun of either 28 hours (class and meeting) for Refresher, or 44 hours (class and meeting) for Basic in order to be certified as a VNTW-VITA 2012 volunteer to serve at the Sites.

  

 

From February 4^th  to April 7^th, 2012, certified volunteers will assist taxpayers in efiling at the following sites: