Volunteer Tax Preparers

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The New York City Financial Network Action Consortium (www.nycfnac.org) is looking for volunteers to administer our FREE tax preparation services to low income tax filers during the upcoming 2009 tax season (January to April 2010). All volunteers will be trained and placed at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites operated by community-based credit unions in East Harlem and the Lower East Side in Manhattan, and Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick in Brooklyn. In 2009, our VITA programs generated $12 million in tax refunds for over 9,000 low-income households.

The credit unions with which NYCfNAC works are non-profit, financial cooperatives dedicated to promoting economic opportunity for their members and furthering the economic development of their communities. They are owned and governed by their members, not by outside shareholders.

The VITA Program was established by NYCfNAC and its credit unions in response to commercial tax preparation firms that charge low-income taxpayers excessive fees and encourage them to borrow their refunds at high interest rates. Your help is needed to permit these families to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and receive all the refunds they are due. An estimated $500 million per year is being lost to New York City residents by EITC-eligible families that do not claim their refunds. At our sites we also promote financial literacy and offer filers, particularly the unbanked, the opportunity to open accounts with our credit unions, so that they can receive their refunds quickly by direct deposit, and enter the financial mainstream.

Volunteer tax preparers will be asked to:

Work at least 4 hours per week during the 13-week tax season (Jan 15- Apr 15). We have daytime, evening and Saturday shifts.

Complete a basic self-study course on-line by the end of December and receive a passing score on a test to receive IRS certification. This self-study course will be posted to the IRS's website in November. (We will notify you when it is available.)

Attend an in-person training session on tax law and TaxWise software in December or January.