REFLECTION PAPER – WORK EXPERIENCE JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT

B. Type of Operation

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program offers free tax help to people who generally make $55,000 or less, persons with disabilities and limited English speaking taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns. IRS-certified volunteers provide free basic income tax return preparation with electronic filing to the qualified individuals. Each site is designed the same. When a client enters the facility, they fill out an intake sheet that requests their personal information. The client then gets an interview from a certified preparer to verify information, such as identity and social security card, and ask any questions that will help the certified preparer prepare the tax return. After the interview, the certified preparer does the tax return then the finished product is reviewed by another individual then submitted to the IRS.

C. Number of Employees

I wasn’t able to find the number of volunteers nationwide, but the Florida A&M University site currently has 16 volunteers.

D. Location of Corporate Headquarters

The IRS headquarters serves as the headquarters for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. Their headquarters is in Washington, D.C.

E. International Market/Affiliations

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program is only in the United States, but we do provide services for U.S. citizens that may be living abroad for the majority of the year or U.S. citizens with non-U.S. sourced income.

F. Principal Products/ Services and Use of Products/Services

The VITA program provides tax preparation services. The certified volunteers use TaxSlayer Pro, an all-inclusive tax software for 1040 tax preparation, to complete the returns.

G. New Markets

Recently the IRS added two new certifications available to the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program volunteers to broaden the scope of services available. The first certification is international. This will allow the certified volunteer to prepare the taxes for U.S. Citizens living abroad or with non-U.S. sourced income. The other certification is foreign student. This will allow the certified volunteer to prepare the taxes for non-citizen students and scholars living in the United States on non-immigrant student visas. There is a huge demand for foreign student certified preparers at the Florida A&M University site because there are so many foreign students that attend the university and need to file their taxes to report scholarships and other forms of income.

H. Major Competitors

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program provides free services, so we aren’t in competition for revenue, but we are in competition for clients to allow the IRS to see the benefit of the VITA program and continue to fund the program. Our biggest competitors are H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, and online preparation services, such as Turbo Tax, TaxAct, and DrakeSoftware.

Word Count: 561 – Headings (39) = 522