What are the responsibilities and job description for the VITA Site Assistant position at GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF CENTRAL MICHIGAN'S HEARTLAND?
Purpose or General Objective: Under the direction of the VITA Community Coordinator, the VITA Site Assistant is responsible for assisting with tax site setup, volunteer coordination, and services identified and developed by the VITA Community Coordinator. This is a temporary position with flexible hours determined by the VITA Community Coordinator. This position oversees and reviews the preparation of taxes at VITA sites but does not prepare taxes through the VITA program. Depending on the need, this position will end around April 15th of each tax year.
See attached Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities from the IRS Volunteer Site Coordinator Handbook.
Essential Duties:
- Provide administrative support for the VITA Community Coordinator at tax sites.
- Manage intake and screening process at tax sites.
- Assist with setting up and cleaning up after-tax sites.
- Provides Quality Review of taxes as needed.
- Attend relevant meetings and trainings.
- Provide assistance with ‘Facilitate Self Assist’ sites, as needed
See attached Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities from the IRS Volunteer Site Coordinator Handbook.
This document is intended to be a general guideline to the position. It is not intended to be all-inclusive. Goodwill Industries reserves the right to revise and modify this job description at any time.
Coordinator Roles: As the coordinator, your primary role is to verify all volunteers are certified to prepare tax returns at the
appropriate level and to follow all site operating procedures.
SPEC requires coordinators and/or alternate coordinators to be available while the site is in operation.
Coordinators and/or alternate coordinators may be available at the site, by phone, or other electronic means.
As a coordinator you must:
• Verify all volunteers are properly certified to work at VITA/TCE sites.
• Create a process to verify the level of certification for each volunteer.
• Ensure each volunteer has signed and dated Form 13615, Volunteer Standards of Conduct – VITA/TCE Program, before they begin work at the site.
• Confirm the volunteer’s identity, name and address using a government-issued photo identification.
It is also your responsibility to share Volunteer Tax Alerts (VTA), Quality Site Requirements Alerts (QSRA), and technical updates with all volunteers during the filing season.
Coordinator Responsibilities:
• Complete SPEC Site Coordinator Training by attending a partner sponsored training, viewing Publication 5088, VITA/TCE Site Coordinator Training, via Link & Learn Taxes (LLT), or downloading the publication from IRS.gov.
• Certify by passing the VITA/TCE Site Coordinator Test with a passing score of 80% or higher prior to performing any site coordinator duties.
• Complete Volunteer Standards of Conduct (Ethics) certification.
• Complete VITA/TCE Intake/Interview and Quality Review certification.
• Complete Form 15272, VITA/TCE Security Plan, or similar document and submit to the local SPEC territory office by December 31st, for approval.
• Supervise volunteers working at the site.
• Develop a process to explain to volunteers the logistics and systems used at your site.
• Schedule dates and times that your site(s) will be operational and Form 13715, Volunteer Site Information Sheet. Notify and submit changes to your SPEC relationship manager immediately.
• Develop and maintain schedules for all volunteers to ensure there is adequate coverage, supplies, and equipment at your site.
• Assign specific roles for all volunteers when installing your software.
• Limit volunteer access in the tax software to only those duties the volunteer performs. Limit access of the Administrator roles to only volunteers who perform those functions.
• Identify an alternate coordinator and ensure your alternate completes Site Coordinator Training and certifies by passing the Site Coordinator Test with a passing score of 80% or higher prior to performing any site coordinator duties.
• Monitor your site’s intake and interview process and ensure all volunteers use Form 13614-C, Intake/Interview and Quality Review Sheet, for every tax return prepared.
• Establish a process to ensure all IRS-certified volunteer preparers and quality reviewers are assigned returns within their level of certification and within scope of the VITA/TCE program (see the Scope of Service Chart in the Publication 4012, VITA/TCE Volunteer Resource Guide).
• Create a process to show everyone who made changes to a tax return, including the preparers, quality reviewers, reject correctors, transmitters, etc.
• Ensure all IRS-certified volunteer preparers are having a discussion with the taxpayer while reviewing the information on Form 13614-C prior to preparing the return.
• Ensure a process is in place to conduct 100% quality reviews by a designated or peer-to-peer quality reviewer. Publication 4012 includes the Quality Review Checklist, which describes all action items the reviewer must complete during the Quality Review Process.
• Validate your site is using the correct SIDN on all tax returns.
• Ensure all taxpayers and spouses provide photo identification and that volunteers confirm SSN or ITIN for everyone listed on the tax return.
• Ensure all taxpayers with returns out of the scope of the VITA/TCE program are told they are not eligible for traditional VITA/TCE tax return preparation and advise them to explore IRS Free File options or use a professional tax preparer.
• Share and monitor adherence to the VTA and QSRA with all volunteers. These alerts are available at the Site Coordinator Corner, TaxSlayer VITA blog, and GovDelivery System.
• Ensure the return preparers and the quality reviewers advise taxpayers of their ultimate responsibility for information on their return.
• Complete Form 13206, Volunteer Assistance Summary Report, and send to your partner.
• After the filing season, hold recognition events for volunteers. You may request volunteer certificates and service recognition milestone awards from your SPEC relationship manager